Wednesday Vignette. Starfish Plant.

Six years ago , my lovely friend from Martinique bestow me a tiny piece of a succulent from her female parent ’s garden . I have nurtured it ever since in the greenhouse .

One twelvemonth it had petite bud which drop off . Then a few days ago I noticed this .

Over the last three years the bud has balloon up and got fatter and puffier and I have been getting more and more worked up . Today it has opened . Wow ! Its name isStapeliagigantea . The word‘gigantea’is not an exaggeration . I translate on line that these flowers can be 30 centimetre in diameter , but I just measured it from tip to tip and it is 40 cm . you may see why it is called Starfish plant .

What you ca n’t see and what my friend did n’t say me , is that it is also called Carrion Plant , for a very good reason . It must be one of the risky smelling industrial plant ever . ThinkDracunculus vulgarisand then intensify it . Of of course you would n’t haveDracunculusin the nursery and so you would n’t get the whole molder flesh - malodor experience . It is pollinate by flies and there are mint buzz around . Not only the stench , but the the fleshy petal are designed to gull them .

Ok , it is stinking , but I am so glad to have seen the amazing , furred , brown bloom . Obviously I wo n’t be bringing it into the house . But I do have to keep holding my nose and going for another facial expression . It just does n’t face material ; more as if someone has knitted it out of hairy yarn .

This works is aboriginal to South East Africa and so has to be keep frost free . In the winter it lives on my landing windowpane sill . Fortunately it does n’t flower in wintertime .

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna atFlutter and Humblog . This meme celebrates exciting plant life combinations , so rigorously speaking myStapeliadoesn’t qualify . But I am certain Anna will be soft . Anyway , it does combine dramatic play , exotism and a cunning way of attracting pollinator . Obviously , a flower that count and smell like rotting chassis is n’t on everyone ’s ‘ Must Have lean ’ . But I wish it .

38 Responses toWednesday Vignette. Starfish Plant.

Wow , what an interesting post , can see why its called the Starfish plant . mean I ’m quite glad I ca n’t smell that one

The flowers are absorbing . I have one in a hatful outside where the smelling is n’t at all vivid – I imagine the smell ( I ca n’t bring myself to advert to is as “ aroma ” ) is much more obtrusive in a greenhouse mount . Mine flowered last class but shows no sign of doing so this year and I ’m afraid that it may be getting too much water from the irrigation system .

Wednesday Vignette. Starfish Plant.