Friday, October 5, 2012

The Stapelia and Lithops Flowers Opened Today!

I was out all day today, but remembered to text my husband to take a picture of the unidentified Lithops flower when he got home from work, because I was sure it would be open today. I'll be gone all day for the next two days too, so if the Faucaria opens, I'll make sure he gets us some pictures of that too.

NOID Lithops flower, a little chewed.
To my surprise, the Stapelia had opened as well today. He thought I meant take pictures of the Stapelia, (which is why there's only 1 shot of the Lithops flower,) as I had texted him the generic, "please can you take pictures of the succulent on the front stoop, a little one in the front should have a flower open today." He doesn't know the names of anything so talking about a Lithops wouldn't have made a difference. When I got home I found out he had been waiting for the Stapelia flower to open for as long as I have. Fascinated by how big it was getting, he was excited to take pictures of it and took about 50. When I got home he insisted on showing me the pictures he took right away, because the flower looked like "hairy skin."

So without further ado, some of the Stapelia photos my husband also took today:

Opening!

Flower color in natural light. Husbands thumb for size reference
Strange, it only has four petals!

A little Macro shot for you

Cat inspection! Or in our house, this happens so often we've shortened it to "Catspection."

So, thanks for waiting patiently with me for pictures of the Stapelia. Now clearly I was off and it's not S. gigantea. I'm thinking it S. grandiflora, (or a hybrid?). If anyone can confirm or deny, I'd appreciate it. I'll take some more pictures when it's fully opened when I'm home on Monday, or maybe I'll let him seeing as how now I know he gets excited about taking pictures of the flowers. Oh, and no smell yet, I'll report back about that too.

5 comments:

  1. Awesomeness!!! That Stapelia flower looks Amazing!! Great pic with the cat in it too. You're right, how strange with only 4 petals; I love four pointed stars. Lithops flower looks very nice too, although slightly eaten, lol? Congrats!!

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    1. Thanks, I was so surprised it was not only so dark, but having less petals look so strange. Yeah I think a chipmunk got to the Lithops flower, some other things were a little chewed too.

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  2. Great, so how is the smell?? I could only handle 1, when 2 and 3 flowers opened - he went the an 'open air' spot! Hehe. Amazing plants.

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    1. Still no detectable smell on this one, does it get worse as the flower matures? There's flies on it, but I can't smell anything, I'm a little disappointed, haha.

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    2. My first one did not smell much on its own, but it got a lot stronger with the other flowers added. The flies lay eggs, they are so totally fooled! These are just one example of why plants in general and C&S specifically amuses me so, I just cannot get enough. :-)

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