my favorite yucky flower
One of my favorite weird plants has bloomed for the first time this year. For much of the year Stapelia gigantea grows low to the ground, forming a dense succulent mat about eight inches tall. But in the summer and fall it perks up and produces these amazing flowers.
Stapelia gigantea with my hand for scale
Stapelia gigantea showing furry petals
Center of Stapelia gigantea
And did I mention that if you stick your nose into the flower the aroma might remind you of hamburger left in an unplugged refrigerator for a couple days? Although the camera scared them away, you can imagine that flies find this the most irresistible flower. It’s no surprise that one of its common names is “carrion flower.”
The genus Stapelia has other stinky flowers, though most with the exception of S. grandiflora have much smaller flowers. A number of closerly related genera in the Stapeliae tribe also have stinky but amazingly intricate and beautiful flowers. Hoodia gordonii, the plant that has become popular as an appetite suppressant, also belongs to this same group of plants.
Growing Stapelia gigantea is easy—actually, too easy in Hawaii and Australia, where it’s considered a weed. Basically give it bright light (it might not bloom in shade), protect it from freezing, and supply it with light to moderate water. (It tolerates not being watered for two or three weeks, thanks to its succulent stems, but it’s happiest with some moisture.) Mine is growing well in a shallow clay pot about eighteen inches in diameter, in regular potting soil.
If you or someone you know has a youngster attracted to crawling, scary bugs, turn them on to this plant. They’ll be a gardener for life.
September 07 2008 07:01 pm | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: carrion flower • in bloom • Stapelia gigantea
Mary Ann on 07 Sep 2008 at 7:42 pm #
Wow. That’s weird. And beautiful. These types of flowers seem almost like a myth in my local area — they wouldn’t survive the winter. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to travel to some far off tropical wonderland some September to have a chance to gaze into the vortex and possibly take a sniff. The thing of legends.
Jenny on 08 Sep 2008 at 4:45 pm #
Oooooh… that has been on my list of things to grow! Maybe Santa can bring it to me. I have a twisted plan to grow the following together:
-Stapelia gettleffii
-Stapelia variegata
-Stapelia flavopurpurea
-Stapelia hirsuta
Can you tell you’ve hit upon an imminent obsession?
lostlandscape on 08 Sep 2008 at 6:16 pm #
Mary Ann—Apparently a lot of people grow this plant in a pot in a sunny window when things get too cold outside. Fortunately it generally flowers when you can leave it outside, so you don’t have to put up with the aroma indoors.
Jenny—I’ve been intending to get more of these species myself, along with some from the related Orbea and Huernia genera. The flowers aren’t as ginormous, but the patterning on the flowers is soooo amazing. We’ll see if Santa can’t pot up a cutting of S. gigantea and keep his elf helper from giving it away to the neighbor like happened last time…
Greg on 13 Sep 2008 at 11:33 am #
Fascinating…I suppose I could try this as a potted plant that goes out with nice weather…but it won’t bloom on me in the winter and stink up the apartment, will it?
lilly-flower on 15 Sep 2008 at 7:27 pm #
It’s incredible! How multiform is our nature and how persistent is human to perceive it.
[ Lost in the Landscape ] » dear santa: odd plants! on 08 Dec 2008 at 5:13 am #
[…] I’d posted on my Stapelia gigantea, and she mentioned that she wouldn’t mind having one […]
Rhys Comley on 05 Jun 2009 at 9:08 am #
I found 3 of these plants growing wild on our farm in South Africa. Does anyone know if it is native to South Africa?
lostlandscape on 05 Jun 2009 at 9:43 am #
Rhys, yes, this species is native to southern Africa, with recorded sightings in at least South Africa, proper (Transvaal, Natal), Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland. I’d love to see it growing in the wild. There are a number of related species with a similar distribution.
[ Lost in the Landscape ] » halloween hostess bouquet on 31 Oct 2009 at 3:51 pm #
[…] was either those or a bloom of the stinking corpse flower, which unfortunately is between flowers. Besides, it’s probably better etiquette, even on […]