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velvet soft but thick stems. grows in clumps as it seems. and just now after 4 years bloomed a huge star shaped flower, sort of translucent with fine brown tiger stripes and hairs.

Ah, yes, one of my favorite plants – they’re odd, with weird out-of-this-world flowers, and a stink to raise the dead.

Stapelia, or the Carrion Flower as they’re known are one of the oddest types of plants. They can survive the worst conditions, biding their time until things improve, which will trigger their huge flowers, with the incredible odor of rotting meat. If yours flowers in the summer, you can put it outside, and marvel at the numbers of flies it will attract to pollinate the flowers.

Indoors, you’ll have to put it in a back room and close the door – some people don’t mind the smell, others are sickened by it.

You can see more about Stapelia and its close relative Huernia here.

Jacki

Comments for velvet soft thick stems

Oct 09, 2012

smell ??
by: Anonymous

mine was outside all summer. when nights hit the 40’s I put it in the sunny side of the basement and then I saw this huge bud !! Then it opened into this beautiful flower, but I have never noticed any smell what so ever !!

Maybe it’s okay if it’s outside – and some people say it doesn’t smell, as you’ve found. Now you know the exact conditions to trigger blooming…