The hummingbird lady brought me this bloom when I was manning the information booth at the Lake Chapala Society. I once knew what it was and I remember it has a sinister association, but I can’t remember what it is. It is an exotic and for some reason I associate it with a Venus flytrap..Perhaps a flower that puts out an odor that attracts flies and then devours them? This is all on the edge of my mind, and I may be totally wrong, but in any case, I think it is interesting against the blue of the counter and the blue of the wall. If you are curious about the hummingbird lady, click on her name above.
5 minutes later––Ha!! Mind like a steel trap! I was right! This flower is a STAPELIA GIGANTEA–one of a few flowers that smells like rotting meat and so attracts mainly flies. The purpose, however, is not for the flower to feed on the flies, but rather for the flies to pollinate the flowers.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Wow. Creepy!
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Last August visited Kew Gardens in London. Their “Corpse plant” was coming into bloom. It was starting to stink. Cheers Jamie.
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Yes, they mention that it is grown as a houseplant but I think best outside the house!!!
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Love the visual presentation of this stinky plant, Judy. Exterior appearances of beauty can be deceiving. 🙂
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It’s strange because it immediately had a negative connotation but it took awhile for me to register that it was the smell that was awful. Then I Googled “Plants that smell like meat” and came up with the name immediately. I had one in California–out on my deck.
Don’t think you’d want one in the house.
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Yes.. in people as well as flowers.
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So exotic looking. 😀 😀
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It’s beautiful — and against the blue background it looks almost like some sort of starfish!
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Beautiful, looks like a star fish to me with the blue background acting as water. Lovely.
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They sometimes call it the starfish flower.
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It is sometimes called the starfish stapelia
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Indeed it is. it strikes and is so obvious. Thanks for sharing.
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It is a South African Succulent and yes stinks like rotting meat, but also looks like it, sometimes called carrion flower, has hair that matches. It is so confusing to flies that they even lay eggs on it. You can get really red versions. Many sizes and species and not all stinks.
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Many of my favorite flowers are South Agrican–proteus and pincushion among them. I actually remembered it had a horrid smell and Googled “flowers with a bad smell” and found this one immediately..Just found your comment which could have simplified things for me. Funny when you have an edge of memory and then tug at it and get a bit more and a bit more. I just knew this flower had an association for me and slowly remembered what it was. I always appreciate it when people send me the answers to my questions. Thanks to you for taking the time to do so.
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That’s one really strange-looking flower. I have no idea what it is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ate birds and bats, too.
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Ha. Discovered it attracts them to pollinate the flowers, not to eat them.
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Rotten meat? Yuck. Why would you want one then?
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Same reason people have pet tarantulas!
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Yeah well I never could figure that out, either! A friend of mine is into snakes. She goes ga-ga when babies are born. Makes me shudder all over!
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wow –
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I love the colour combinations, so subtle. How strange the contrast of the lovely appearance of the flower and its smell and the idea of it being a ‘corpse plant’.
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