Odd, ugly succulent flowering after 10-12 years

trish.farrar · Thu Jul 16, 2015 1:22 pm

: Tiny starts of flowers.

We've had this plant for 10-12 years and all it does is be ugly. It has no leaves, per se, just these snakelike trailing finger-width growth. Until now, when some little (so far) flowers began to grow. Any ideas what it is?

Mr_bobo_ · Thu Jul 16, 2015 8:36 pm

HmmmI never see that kind of... :/

trish.farrar · Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:28 pm

We now believe it is a Persian Carpet Flower
Scientific Name: Edithcolea grandis N.E. Br.
Synonym:
Family: Asclepiadaceae

purpleinopp · Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:11 am

Compare to Ceropegia, though I'm not sure which species.

trish.farrar · Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:08 am

Here is another picture. "IT" opened yesterday. The whole flower is about 3" in length from the plant to the tip, and about 1.25" across. I looked at Ceropegia, you may be right. I saw a photo with similar flower appearance. It looks like to me that Ceropegia, in general, has more of a leafy structure, but perhaps not always.

purpleinopp · Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:50 am

Agreed. I was unsuccessful searching for a matching species, but admit I didn't put much effort into it. There's a lot of them, and I don't know them at all except the common house plant C. woodii. Potted specimens can be so gnarly & strange they sometimes don't resemble an ideal specimen from a native area, which can also affect recognition via pics. No idea if that's a factor here or not. It's happy enough to bloom, so that's a feather in your cap either way. Cheers to that!

A very interesting plant, by any name!

trish.farrar · Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:11 pm

I would think it may be this one:
Ceropegia Stapeliiformis
The photos of the flower seem to match up.
Thanks, you've been so much help. I was referred to the helpfulgardener by someone else, and appreciate it so much.
BTW, the description of this plant indicates that hanging tips will root when they touch the ground so I'm going to see about that! - Trish