Reach into a lotus and it is the temperature of a body. It heats itself, holds insects inside overnight, and lets them go in the morning carrying its traces to somebody else. Flowerotica closes with the flower we all agreed was about purity, and a twelfth-century poem in which a god begs a woman to put her foot on his head. The lotus is waiting to see who climbs in.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Seymour & Schultze-Motel (1996): "Thermoregulating lotus flowers," Nature, Vol. 383. Floral temperature range and thermoregulation.
2. Seymour & Schultze-Motel (1998): follow-up work on heat production and beetle pollination in Nelumbo nucifera.
3. Li & Huang (2009): "Effective pollinators of Asian sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)," Annals of Botany. Protogyny, day-one stigma receptivity, day-two anther dehiscence, overnight trapping of beetles.
4. Barbara Stoler Miller, trans. (1977): Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gitagovinda, Columbia University Press. Standard scholarly translation; source for structure, raga and tala assignment, and shringara framing.
5. Andrew Schelling, trans. (2008): Kamini: Poems from the Gitagovinda.
6. Lee Siegel, trans.: Gitagovinda: Love Songs of Radha and Krishna, Clay Sanskrit Library.
7. Lee Siegel (1978): Sacred and Profane Dimensions of Love in Indian Traditions, as Exemplified in the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva.
8. Encyclopedia of Religion, "Jayadeva" entry. Padmavati marriage tradition and the Krishna-writes-the-couplet legend.
9. Ocaso Press: Gita Govinda translation and commentary (public domain rendering, invocation text).
10. Gita Govinda Canto X, song 19: "smara-garala-khandanam mama shirasi mandanam dehi pada-pallavam udaram." The foot-on-head verse and the love-as-poison image.
11. Gita Govinda Canto XI (Radha enters the bower) and Canto XII (the union, rati viparita, and the re-adornment song).
12. Sanskrit devotional usage of pada-padma, charana-kamala and pada-aravinda as fixed epithets for the feet of a deity, guru or elder. Miller's notes cover this; worth a scholarly cite rather than a devotional site.

A flower that every culture has tried to contain and instead, it gets louder. In the third episode of Flowerotica, we're following tuberose. Commonly mistaken for jasmine, but this one doesn't seduce so lightly. Banned from Victorian bedrooms, named after courtesans, and bottled as an unrequited declaration of love. Some flowers take you apart at the seams.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Wikipedia: Polianthes tuberosa entry (pronunciation exchange, Raffalovich/Wilde detail)
2. Wikipedia: Marc-André Raffalovich entry
3. Wikipedia: Germaine Cellier entry
4. Wikipedia: Fracas (perfume) entry
5. Wikipedia: Edwige Feuillère entry
6. AbeBooks / Peter Harrington listing for Tuberose and Meadowsweet first edition (Wilde's review quote, Uranian poetry context)
7. UT Austin Ransom Center blog (Wilde/Raffalovich acquaintance timeline, Pall Mall Gazette review date: March 27, 1885)
8. Cambridge University Press / New Blackfriars journal: "Uranisme et Unisexualité" (Raffalovich biography, Wilde/Raffalovich relationship souring)
9. Fragrantica: "Germaine Cellier: Innovator and Iconoclast" (Cellier biography, Fracas dedication, Bandit context)
10. Fragrantica: "Germaine Cellier: Genius and Witch" (Feuillère crush detail, vintage Fracas description)
11. Kafkaesque blog: "Perfume Review — Robert Piguet Fracas: The History & The Legend" (Cellier biography, Roja Dove quote, ingredient list)
12. Into The Gloss: "History Lesson: The Scent of Fracas" (Cellier eccentricities, Feuillère nude scene, naming of Fracas)
13. AllMovie: Edwige Feuillère biography
14. Our Classic Past blog: Edwige Feuillère entry
15. Silver Scenes blog: Edwige Feuillère entry
16. Xochiquetzal mythology details (Wikipedia and supporting sources on Aztec mythology)

In the second episode of Flowerotica we track the orchid, and a floral biology so precise that it can replicate female arousal at the molecular level. From ancient Greece to Victorian greenhouses, landing in a domestic garden in Melbourne, this is a flower that has been running the same naturally selective seduction for two hundred million years. Some flowers get into the chemistry.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Schiestl et al. (1999): "Orchid pollination by sexual swindle," Nature
2. Schiestl et al. (2000): "Sex pheromone mimicry in the early spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes)," Journal of Comparative Physiology A, Vol. 186
3. Edith Coleman (1927): original paper on pseudocopulation in Cryptostylis leptochila, republished by Edward Poulton in Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society, 1928
4. "Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation," The American Naturalist, 2008
5. Brunton & Martin: "Orchid sexual deceit affects pollinator sperm transfer," Functional Ecology, 2020
6. British Herbal Guide (1653)
7. Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance (1893)
8. Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (1998)
9. Fred M. White, "The Purple Terror" (1896)