Sunday, April 27, 2014

Stapelia leendertziae


 This one I'm told is a true leendertziae.  There are a lot of crosses of this one, but this is the classic bell shaped one that is so different from the open flowers of most of the stapelias.

The flower pod on these are the deep dark red, almost purple unlike most of their relatives which develop a green pod. 

Stapelia leendertziae - Bud

Above - just starting to open, below about 5 hours later.


And this is it fully open.

Smell - um STRONG.  These guys you do not plant near your eating area (well I don't suggest that with any of these - but especially not these ones).  The thing about the smell is that as the temperatures climb the smell gets stronger, and it travels further.   This cutting I received off a fellow collector in Floreat - and his was in a hanging basket with about 15 flowers open.  The smell could have knocked you backwards.  Looked absolutely gorgeous.  Good thing it has big flowers (about 5cm across) as that way you can admire from a safe distance!

And a view down the throat of the plant to show the corona.  Flies were busy yesterday and I could see them coming and going from inside while I was taking photos of the divaricata openting yesterday.



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