Caralluma flower

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:51 pm

This is my first post in far too long.

I love the velvetine texture and the unusual series of rings inside this flower. I have not ben able to ID it yet but I believe it is a caralluma. For a flower in the stapelia family, it did not smell too bad at all.

This is a stack of 32.

Irwin

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:52 pm

Hhmm... Forgot to include the image, perhaps?

--Rik

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:57 pm

rjlittlefield wrote:Hhmm... Forgot to include the image, perhaps?

--Rik

thanks for letting me know, Rik.

Irwin

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:41 pm

Welcome back Irwin. I missed your pictures

An excellent photo. That species of plants has some strange looking flowers and it is very good that it smells nice. They can really stink

.

jmlphoto · Post by **jmlphoto** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:02 pm

great photo how big is it?

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:35 pm

I am assuming that this is a cactus flower

By the way IRT the smell, it isn't related to that stinking corpse flower is it? Nonetheless it is a beautiful flower, smell or no smell.

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:29 pm

beetleman wrote:Welcome back Irwin. I missed your pictures An excellent photo. That species of plants has some strange looking flowers and it is very good that it smells nice. They can really stink .

Thanks Doug. It's good to be back posting. The flower doesn't quite smell good. It's just that it does not smell as horrible as some of the other stapelliads

Irwin

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:36 pm

jmlphoto wrote:great photo how big is it?

Thanks for looking and commenting Jordan. The flower is about 3/4ths of an inch across.

Irwin

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:39 pm

Ken Ramos wrote:I am assuming that this is a cactus flower By the way IRT the smell, it isn't related to that stinking corpse flower is it? Nonetheless it is a beautiful flower, smell or no smell.

You are right,Ken, it is one of the corpse flowers in the stapelia family. It is a succulent but not a cactus.

Irwin

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:30 pm

Lovely shot Irwin -
Brian V.

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:43 am

Thanks Brian for your kind thoughts.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:26 pm

I don't grow them Irwin. You need to hang up a pig in the greenhouse as an air freshener when those flower!

You often find that flies are fooled into laying their eggs on them believing them to be carrion. When the eggs hatch the grubs have a very short life soon dying of starvation.

Nice to see you back and posting. There should be a few on Joan's patch for her to photograph in S. Africa:-

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantqrs/stapelia.htm

http://anti-matter-3d.com/Stapeliads/Caralluma.html

DaveW

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:53 am

DaveW wrote:I don't grow them Irwin. You need to hang up a pig in the greenhouse as an air freshener when those flower!

You often find that flies are fooled into laying their eggs on them believing them to be carrion. When the eggs hatch the grubs have a very short life soon dying of starvation.

Nice to see you back and posting. There should be a few on Joan's patch for her to photograph in S. Africa:-

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantqrs/stapelia.htm

http://anti-matter-3d.com/Stapeliads/Caralluma.html

DaveW

Now Dave, I hope you won't become a weepy champion for the starving maggots of the world. But really...even you have to admit that they are beautiful plants provided you don't have to smell them. Besides, it's sometimes handy to have a stapelia flower as a ready excuse.

I laughed my buns off at the image of a pig hanging as an air freshener. Its good to hear your voice.

Irwin

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:25 am

Stinking flowers?

Must be attractive to flies in any case.

Very very nice photo(s) Irwin.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:35 am

You need Doug's terrarium/aquarium to grow them in Irwin and seal the lid up so you can't smell them. They do have interesting flowers though and I am sure flies think they smell like Orange Blossom.

DaveW