Common Name: Star Fish Flower, Giant Toad Plant, Giant Zulu, Carrion Flower, Great flowered stapelia
Characteristics: A tufted cactus-like plant with large and showy star-fish shaped flowers. Flowers smell like rotting meat and are very attractive to the flies that pollinate them
There are many hybrids both in the wild and in cultivation. It is a relatively large, perennial, stem succulent that can form large compact clusters up to 50 cm in diameter (or more).
Stems: Erect or ascending 9-10(-30) cm long up to 3 cm in diameter (usually less than 2 cm)
Flower: Large, flat, star fish-shaped, orange, dark-red, deep brown-purple to chocolate, with transverse brow to whitish corrugation and densely covered by long purplish hairs at the centre that remember the fur of a dead animal. Sometimes flies lay eggs on the flower. Larvae that have hatched from the eggs can be seen on the flower
Blooming season: Flowers are intermittently produced throughout the late summer and autumn.
Geographic Origin: Southern Africa
Natural History: Northern cape, Eastern Cape and Free State.
It is also a very popular houseplant grown worldwide for its eye catching and large flowers.
Cultivation Notes: N/A
Ethnobotany: N/A
Plants of Wade Rd 