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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

What is this plant?

I have this plant in a pot and yesterday it made 5 flowers. The flowers smell like sewage.

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/mikeweaver/Plant1.jpg[/img]
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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Don't know what it is, but I do know that there are tropical and rainforest plants whose flowers use flies for pollinators not bees, and so the flowers smell like rotting meat and stuff like that.
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lorax
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Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:48 pm
Location: Ecuador, USDA Zone 13, at 10,000' of altitude

Stapelia gigantea or something very similar. RBG is quite right - they're pollinated by carrion flies and hence they're rather stinky. They're gorgeous in their own sort of horrid way, though.

[url=https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=stapelia%20gigantea&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=969l2183l0l3511l11l7l0l0l0l0l445l1194l0.1.1.1.1l4l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi]Compare.[/url]
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PunkRotten
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Location: Monterey, CA.

Yes I have heard of them. They are very beautiful IMO. I would like to get a collection one of these days.
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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I have noticed the flowers have several flies on them. I have not seen any bees on the flowers. I have seen several wasps flying around but so far none have landed on the flowers.
Luria
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Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2011 3:46 pm
Location: Puerto Rico

Definitely a stapelia, from the huernia family :)


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