Overwatering them in pots is also the main cause of their demise as most of the carrion flowers are sensitive to moisture in the winter months when they’re most likely to rot out.Ībove all, remember that carrion flowers can be an olfactory problem in close quarters when in bloom. However, if overly wet these plants become vulnerable to rot and will die out in spots. In sandy Palm Springs soil a single cutting of mine turned into a huge 3-foot patch under spray irrigation. This is why both the red and yellow forms make great groundcovers for shaded areas where many other succulents fail. Move the container into shade for a month or more until roots appear, then plant out into your garden. The best way is to fill a low, wide container with moist sand and set the cutting on top, pressing it down slightly to anchor it. If you insert cuttings into rooting medium, often the buried part will rot away before roots form. This is explained by their creeping growth habit in the wild that develops root nodes on the underparts of each stem where they contact sandy ground. I discovered at the garden that cuttings that fall to the sandy floor and are left there tended to root much faster than those I planted in pots. That’s why it’s important to obtain cuttings or buy plants when blooming to make sure you are getting the color you want. The plants of both these varieties are identical until they bloom, so once summer heat brings them into reproductive mode, you can tell them apart. She features wavy red ridges and more hair, and due to this enormous size, these are the biggest stinkers of all. She reclines arrayed in creamy yellow to mimic puss exuding from a carcass. The queen of carrion flowers is another form of the same species the diameter of a dinner plate when fully opened. With no flesh to feed on they die quickly, accumulating numbers until the flower finally fades. A magnifying glass will show you these specs are in fact newly hatched fly maggots from eggs laid on the flower surface. Study a new blossom closely and very soon small white specks appear at the very center where scent is most potent. The red flowers best show us this plant’s strategy for pollination. At the center of each starfish-shaped flower is a pocket that emits the odor, and on any day you’ll find flies gathered upon its surface. To make it more realistic there are ridges on these thickened succulent blooms with hairs that further resemble a fallen prey. The red flowered form in the botanical garden resembles exposed flesh of a fresh kill. Thankfully this is carrion flower territory and they are in their glory in midsummer heat when fresh kills putrefy quickly in the dark continent.Įverything about the carrion flower points to its pollinators. These curious plants bear some of the largest single flowers in the entire succulent plant world, yet they can be devilishly difficult to grow outside the desert. They thrive there in the high bright shade of very old palo verde trees. I first encountered them in Clark Moorten’s garden a decade ago, and it was love at first sight. Instead Stapelia gigantia arrays herself with the sight and smell of rotting flesh to attract its designated pollen vector, flies. She lures her pollinators with scent just like common garden flowers, but this fetid bloom is not designed to draw bees or other common pollinators. They are children of the South African veldt, where the daily struggle of predator and prey has evolved a most curious flower.
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