“Say ‘Ahhh’…”

As temperatures fall into autumn at this latitude, I am being chased indoors to the greenhouse on campus by the dearth of “critters” outside.

I think this is a “Carrion flower,” specifically Stapelia grandiflora, a spineless succulent plant in the Apocynaceae family (Dogbanes) that looks like a cactus, but is not a cactus. (Indeed, they do not even belong to the same taxonomic “order.”) Today I have caught the flower just starting to open!

Species page at PhytoImages, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/cgi-bin/dol/dol_terminal.pl?taxon_name=Stapelia_grandiflora&rank=binomial

Photo taken at SIUC Plant Biology Greenhouse, http://www.plantbiology.siu.edu/facilities/plant-biology-facilities/greenhouse/index.php

One year ago (“Autumn [SOOC]”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-10-16
Two years ago (“Integration”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-10-16

[Danette Thompson]

Fascinating flower.

[Rick Schies]

Amazing piece of nature

[KAL]

So cool! Fav