English

Wikispecies

Noun

stapelia ‎(plural stapelias)

1. (botany) Any of the genus Stapelia of low-growing succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa, and often giving off an odour of rotten flesh.
   • 1835, The Gentleman′s Magazine, Volume 159, page 234,

     […] the instinctive faculty […] sometimes falls into mistake and error, as in the instance which Mr. Kirby gives of the flesh-fly mistaking the blossom of the stapelia for carrion, the hen a piece of chalk for an egg ; and he may add the instance given by Dr. Roget, of the vulture mistaking the skin of an animal stuffed with hay for the carcase.

   • 2005, Complete Guide to Orchids, Ortho Books, page 211,

     Prom.^[Promenaea] stapelioides has 2-inch-wide yellow flowers with concentric red-brown markings, resembling the famous carrion flower stapelia, hence the epithet stapelioides.

   • 2010, Marianne North, Abundant Beauty: The Adventurous Travels of Marianne North, Botanical Artist, page 204,

     He had also a collection of stapelias and other small prickly plants; some of them were almost invisible without a magnifying glass, but most interesting.

Synonyms

• (genus of odoriferous plants): carrion flower