06/17/2026
Over the past few days, The University of Rhode Island has had a livestream of the co**se flower in their greenhouse as it began the long process of blooming. Yesterday the flower opened.
This rare event takes 7-10 years from seed to bloom, and the bloom only lasts for 24-48 hours once fully opened. The next bloom is equally rare, as it does not follow a set pattern and may be another 2-10 years for it to bloom again due to the energy required to do so.
While we did not have the very rare corspe flower (Titan arum) in the greenhouses at Unity College, we did have an incredible collection of plants representing different ecosystems around the world, all curated by Ed Beals, the head of the Ecology Department. Ed built an incredible legacy throughout his life and his time at Unity, not just with the expansion and creation of a new greenhouse and the herbarium collection that students added to throughout the years, but in how he cultivated not only the plants, but our passion for botany, ecosystems, and the natural world.
Last year, despite the cold temps during Alumni Weekend, a few of us who all happened to be Ecology majors, stayed up late reminiscing about our classes with Ed and the antics outside our classes, as that was what made our CommUnity so special back then, it truly was like extended family.
It has been disheartening to see the greenhouse vacant over the last several years. I spent many hours in there for class labs & projects, and for my work-study position. I watched the cycles of the plants through the seasons and helped propagate new plants for our annual plant sale, happy to see them find new homes in the dorms or off-campus dwellings with others who were also passionate about plants. Periodically, I wonder what ever became of Ed's greenhouse collection, the plants he tended to, the herbarium specimens. I hope they found their way to people who appreciated them and Ed.
And I suppose it is fitting that the livestream of the co**se flower blooming in The Horridge Conservatory in Rhode Island made its way to me, and that having watched its progression over the past few days, as news broke of the sale of the campus yesterday evening, the bloom was opening. It seemed to be a message from beyond about the rarity of what has passed, the legacy we carry with us, what remains within us. That is a rare and special thing indeed.
I can only hope that with the sale of the campus so many called home during our time at Unity the new owners bring back the beauty of the greenhouses that have sat empty for years, Ed's legacy deserves to live on in some small way there, though he will always be with those that knew and cherished him and the incredible in depth knowledge he bestowed upon us.
It is up to us to keep the legacy of what we cherished during our time at 90 Quaker Hill Road alive, to carry forward the knowledge, the stories, the work of those that are no longer with us, to honor the uniqueness of our experience.
Dawn breaks over a new day as I type this, a new chapter, as a longstanding one closes. It is a surreal feeling, not unlike my last dawn as a student at Unity College, having pulled an all-nighter in the Koons Hall computer lab to finish my final project for Dave Potter's Fisheries Science & Techniques class. As I walked across campus that morning at 6AM, 3-ring binder thick with a semester's worth of lab data collected in our excursions in the local watersheds tucked under my arm, the feeling and realization came over me, this wasn't just my final project for the class, it was my last project and assignment of my four years at Unity College. There is something very real and yet indescribable in that pause, in that space between, one chapter complete, another not yet begun. That is where we find ourselves now. The era of Unity College as we knew it at 90 Quaker Hill Road has ended. Our story still goes on. Our CommUnity lives on.
As we reflect on all that Unity College meant to us, what this new chapter may or may not hold, I hope you will continue to carry the torch, that the spark that inspired & united us over decades, the love of nature, community, and adventure, will live on in your legacy.
We intend to do our part here to keep our CommUnity together, our stories and voices united, our shared memories from the past and those yet to be made, our spark and laughter alive.
We hope to see many of you this fall for Alumni Weekend to share in the spirit of what made our time at Unity so impactful, and to keep the spirit of our Unity CommUnity alive and well.
Our website has all of the details for Alumni Weekend and membership in the Unity College Maine Alumni Association, along with other notable information. unitycollegemainealumniassoc.org
As this new day begins, we hope you will join us.
And for those of you who are as intrigued as I am by the blooming of the co**se flower here is the link to the livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/67O9UR8YB9c?is=LrYqCDCLS5bs56KB
Sending hugs out to our Unity CommUnity 💗🌲☯️🐏
Brightest Blessings,
Jen Knight
UCMAA Secretary
🌅
© Jennifer M. Knight
