Stapelia hirsuta - Starfish Cactus 3665
I've posted two other Carrion plants in 2021. This was the lasgest of the six (two species) that opened that you. I misunderstood the term "carrion plant." I must have been thinking of Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors." The Stapelia hirsuta doesn't eat flies or meat: it attracts flies by smelling like rotten meat or, in another description, putrid fish. Well, that certainly increases my appetite for dinner.
I don't know why I thought of it as I would the Venus Fly Trap or Sundew plants that do "eat" insects that dare get inside the plant and touch one of three triggers (fly trap) that makes the trap close.
The Stapelia hirsuta, starfish flower or carrion plant, "is an evergreen perennial succulent plant native to the Cape region of South Africa in the family Apocynaceae, genus Stapelia. The stem has no leaves or spines and is quadrangular, resembling a cactus, but it is not a cactus. From May to October, it produces balloon-shaped buds like Balloon flower (scientific name: Platycodon grandiflorus) and Cotton , scientific name: Gossypium that break open to produce hairy, human-shaped, reddish-purple flowers. The flowers have the smell of rotting dead flesh. The flowers have a foul odor of dead flesh and attract flies to pollinate them."
What I did witness with this flower was - other than opening it's four "leaves" - was attracting flies. Then, as nature has its way, the Western Fence Lizards would come close to the flower and pick off the flies one by one. It was fascinating.
After searching daily for a week, I then waited six weeks for these to open. I didn't know what to expect. Closed, they just look like a "bulb." Open, they are unusually beautful and unique flowers. For the more beautiful Obea variegatta, see below. Hard to believe they're related.
The most disappointing this about these flowers is that, after waiting so long for them to bloom, the open in a matter of hours, and die in two to three days. The same was true for both species in the Garden, but I've heard that people keep Obea indoors and they may last for some days (weeks?).
Stapelia hirsuta - Starfish Cactus 3665
I've posted two other Carrion plants in 2021. This was the lasgest of the six (two species) that opened that you. I misunderstood the term "carrion plant." I must have been thinking of Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors." The Stapelia hirsuta doesn't eat flies or meat: it attracts flies by smelling like rotten meat or, in another description, putrid fish. Well, that certainly increases my appetite for dinner.
I don't know why I thought of it as I would the Venus Fly Trap or Sundew plants that do "eat" insects that dare get inside the plant and touch one of three triggers (fly trap) that makes the trap close.
The Stapelia hirsuta, starfish flower or carrion plant, "is an evergreen perennial succulent plant native to the Cape region of South Africa in the family Apocynaceae, genus Stapelia. The stem has no leaves or spines and is quadrangular, resembling a cactus, but it is not a cactus. From May to October, it produces balloon-shaped buds like Balloon flower (scientific name: Platycodon grandiflorus) and Cotton , scientific name: Gossypium that break open to produce hairy, human-shaped, reddish-purple flowers. The flowers have the smell of rotting dead flesh. The flowers have a foul odor of dead flesh and attract flies to pollinate them."
What I did witness with this flower was - other than opening it's four "leaves" - was attracting flies. Then, as nature has its way, the Western Fence Lizards would come close to the flower and pick off the flies one by one. It was fascinating.
After searching daily for a week, I then waited six weeks for these to open. I didn't know what to expect. Closed, they just look like a "bulb." Open, they are unusually beautful and unique flowers. For the more beautiful Obea variegatta, see below. Hard to believe they're related.
The most disappointing this about these flowers is that, after waiting so long for them to bloom, the open in a matter of hours, and die in two to three days. The same was true for both species in the Garden, but I've heard that people keep Obea indoors and they may last for some days (weeks?).