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It is deeply disturbing when a well known and cherished plant suddenly changes its name, it feels like a betrayal, like being ignored in the street by someone you took for a friend.
However, we adapt, with slow determination and Stapelia variegata has become Orbea variegata. It was never particularly cuddly, so I'm not weeping bitter tears
of abandonment, just mildly put out by the loss of the familiar. I read a brief note about someone in Canada growing a Stapelia without any heat, so I was determined to try it here in ther greenhouse, and it seems to be working. I am astonished! The Llifle Encyclopedia of Plant Forms says: "Orbea variegata is a soft stemmed succulent erect or prostrate, branched above ground. In age forms big clumps. The carrion-like smell of the flowers attracts flies and other insects for pollination. Stems: Sprawling and decumbent over to 25 cm long, toothed, grey green mottled purple in full sun. The typical flower is 5-7 cm across with 5 blunt lobes, starfish-like, attractively patterned or dusted with chocolate/purple, brown/bronze blotches on a greenish-yellow background, mostly in 6-7 rows or irregularly scattered, Corolla rugose, with a yellow central disc (annulus) speckled with dark spots. Flowers coming in late summer or fall, have a light carrion smell. It is quite free flowering if in direct sunlight. The plant can readily set seed, after the fecundation the carpels develop long cylindrical fruits up to 12 cm long, these need to be contained when they ripen, because as soon as the fruit opens it liberate a cloud of flying seed provided with a white feathery cotton fluff. The seeds can float from the pods and drift around the greenhouse on the slightest breeze." |
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| 29th June 2006 | ||
