A Beautiful Flower, But Smells Like Rotten Flesh!!

I know there are a lot of gardeners in here, so this one if for you!

I have been collecting plants for nearly 10 years now, and have collected over 70 species of Succulent. I love to go hiking, and each time I come across a new species that I don't have, I will take a small piece back home, as they grow very well form cuttings. But I found my coolest plant ever!!

I got this plant a few months ago, the Stapelia Lepida, which is actual the 4th addition to this type of flower in my collection. I already had a Stapelia Gigantea, Orbea Lutea Subsp. Lutea and the Humilis Magniflora, but the latter has not flowered yet.

The Stapelia Lepida makes an amazingly beautiful flower, but you will smell it when you get near him.

Commonly called “carrion flower,” Stapelia lepida has more than earned its name. Although the plant itself is unassuming and could easily be overlooked in its natural habitat, it is actually quite deceitful.Preferring to live low to the ground and most often under the shade of another taller plant, S. lepidabides its time for much of the year. Only upon flowering does the deceitful nature of this small succulent become clear. The flower of S. lepida is visually appealing, and many collectors grow S. lepida simply for the beauty and uniqueness of the flower itself. The secret, however, is the smell. The scent of the flower of S. lepida is strikingly similar to that of rotting flesh. This is of course no accident, as S. lepida uses this smell to attract flies that find the odor enticing and subsequently lay their eggs on the flower, convinced it is a corpse that will provide food for their newly hatched larvae. In most cases of pollination the process is beneficial for both the plant and the pollinator; the plant gets fertilized and the pollinator is provided with nectar or pollen as a food source. In the case of S. lepida, the pollinator is deceived into thinking it has found a suitable place to lay its eggs and instead has wasted valuable energy and deposited eggs that will not survive.

umaine.edu...

This was the closed flower, about 2 or 3 weeks old. You can see the size of a 3 day old flower right above the big one.


It started opening when if was about 3 weeks.


Here is another flower fully open. To fully open up took him about a 10 hours.


And here is an amazing view of the complex structure of the heart of the flower.


Truly an amazing flower!!
I just thought I would share this one, because not a lot of people know about this little stinky beauty hehe!!

a reply to: IndependentOpinion
That is very neat! What a beautiful flower. I've been wanting to get into gardening vegetables but to be honest I don't even know where or how to start.

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

I have had the very rare pleasure of seeing this bloom when I was in school....it drew 1000s of watchers.

Theres quite a few flowers and plants that go for attracting the "other" sort of pollinators, rotting flesh and waste animal matter being the main two.

Some are as ugly as their smells and some are not, at least you went for one of the pretty ones instead of the otherwise regardless stinkers

That inner part is quite pretty and intricate, very nice and unusual

Have you seen the BAT FLOWER?
www.flickr.com...

Beautiful and unique, but I don't think I'd want it around because of the smell. I'll stick to lavender and what-not. LOL

That's beautiful. The close up photo really shows the intricacies in it's pattern.

a reply to: cavtrooper7

Wow that's one cool looking flower!!! Thanks for sharing that one!!

a reply to: Night Star

Well the smell is not that back, it's only when you go and smell it that you would regret having it LOL! You have to be pretty close to it to be able to get the stench.

BUT, the Orbea Lutea Subsp. Lutea is a bit more potent that the Stapelia Lepida. You can actually smell the Orbea Lutea from about 5 feet away!!

originally posted by: LoverBoy
a reply to: IndependentOpinion
That is very neat! What a beautiful flower. I've been wanting to get into gardening vegetables but to be honest I don't even know where or how to start.

You start with a growing medium, soil or compost suitably prepared for whatever it is you want to grow or what is practical to grow in the area that you have to grow in (shady/south facing etc). If you want to grow root veggies, anticipate lots of digging.

Buy some seeds, follow the instructions, you learn as you go.

OP I think I could put up with the bad smell and, in areas that suffer from over populations from whatever it feeds on would benefit from having this flower around. It's the prettiest pest controller I think I've ever seen. Thanks muchly for posting.

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

Nice find....succulents are a truly unique and bizarre plant...... .

I move around too much now to maintain my own plants.....i used to have a large cacti collection and granted a little spiky but amazing when they flowered.....

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: IndependentOpinion

Nice find....succulents are a truly unique and bizarre plant...... .

I move around too much now to maintain my own plants.....i used to have a large cacti collection and granted a little spiky but amazing when they flowered.....

I love spikes. I don't have my own garden anymore, lots of house plants, the cacti keeps the cat from chewing anything that she shouldn't. Apart from the Easter and Christmas varieties, I've only had one cacti flower properly, a gaudy tutti frutti orange colour, proportionally massive, totally unreal. I squealed.

a reply to: Anaana

I've only had one cacti flower properly, a gaudy tutti frutti orange colour, proportionally massive

....that is what i loved ,here in Australia where i am the climate is good for cacti so the plants will sometimes flower twice a year...and yeah the size of the flower in comparison to the plant is amazing as well as the fact you wait so long for a flower than in most cases lasts only one day.....

Until recently i had a massive bromeliad collection which was to be my retirement business but sadly circumstances forced me to all but give away some 10000 plants which were to be the base of an indoor plant business....now i am back to square 1...on the upside i have my young boy in my care and he will be my motivation for the near future

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Anaana

I've only had one cacti flower properly, a gaudy tutti frutti orange colour, proportionally massive

....that is what i loved ,here in Australia where i am the climate is good for cacti so the plants will sometimes flower twice a year...and yeah the size of the flower in comparison to the plant is amazing as well as the fact you wait so long for a flower than in most cases lasts only one day.....

Until recently i had a massive bromeliad collection which was to be my retirement business but sadly circumstances forced me to all but give away some 10000 plants which were to be the base of an indoor plant business....now i am back to square 1...on the upside i have my young boy in my care and he will be my motivation for the near future

You and me both, I gave up my house and garden but gained stability and security from which to raise my boy. That experience is worth so much more than things...but I still miss my plants, they were living things that I raised and nurtured too. I had a shady, walled garden. Thinking of my lost collection of ferns can bring a lump to my throat and if I don't banish the thought quickly, a tear has been known to follow. It's not easy handing our babies over to strangers to care for

Best of luck to you and your lad.