''Stapelia hirsuta'', common name starfish flower or carrion plant, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...

Name and synonyms

The genus epithet ''Stapelia'' was named in honour of Johannes van Stapel, who described the first plant discovered, while the Latin

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''hirsuta'' means "hairy”.Cactus Art
/ref> *''Tridentea depressa'' Haw. ex Schult. *''Stissera patula'' Kuntze *''Stissera hirsuta'' Kuntze *''Stissera depressa'' Kuntze *''Stapelia unguipetala'' N. E. Br. *''Stapelia sororia'' Jacq. *''Stapelia patula'' var.'' longirostris'' *''Stapelia patula'' Willd. *''Stapelia patentirostris'' N. E. Br. *''Stapelia lanigera'' Loudon *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' unguipetala'' ( N. E. Br.) N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' patula'' ( Willd.) N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' lutea'' N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' longirostris'' ( N. E. Br.) N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' grata'' N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' depressa'' ( Jacq.) N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' comata'' ( Jacq.) N. E. Br. *''Stapelia hirsuta'' var.'' affinis'' ( N. E. Br.) N. E. Br. *''Stapelia elongata''

Sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

*''Stapelia depressa'' Jacq. *''Stapelia comata'' Jacq. *''Stapelia affinis'' N. E. Br. *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' var.'' luteus'' ( N. E. Br.) P.V. Heath *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' var.'' longirostris'' ( N. E. Br.) P.V. Heath *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' var.'' gratus'' ( N. E. Br.) P.V. Heath *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' var.'' depressus'' ( Jacq.) P.V. Heath *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' var.'' comatus'' ( Jacq.) P.V. Heath *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' var.'' affinis'' ( N. E. Br.) P.V. Heath *''Gonostemon hirsutus'' ( L.) P.V. Heath

Description

Stapelia hirsuta - grooved stem - Barrydale

''Stapelia hirsuta'' stems are subquadrangular in cross-section, about high, and to thick. Concave groves run vertically along the stems, between their four angles. This feature can sometimes help to distinguish ''S. hirsuta'' from many other ''

Stapelia ''Stapelia'' is a genus of low-growing, spineless, stem succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa with a few from other parts of Africa. Several Asian and Latin American species were formerly included but they have all now been transfer ...

'' species with which it naturally co-occurs (e.g. '' Stapelia rufa'', '' Stapelia engleriana'') that typically have stems which are also subquadrangular, but which are more rounded in cross-section. The surface of ''S.hirsuta'' stems are also usually shortly pubescent. Leaf rudiments are 1-2mm long. Populations growing on sandstones can be glabrous stemmed, stemmed with purple mottling.Plants Africa
/ref>PV.Bruyns: ''Stapeliads of southern Africa and Madagascar''. Umdaus. 2005. Vol.II.

Flowers

The flowers are flat, very hairy, dark-red and resemble rotting meat. Corolla can reach a width of about . The carrion smell serve to attract various pollinators, especially flies. The flowering period extends from late summer through late autumn.

Subspecies

This species is extremely variable with various

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

and many hybrids. * ''Stapelia hirsuta baylissii'' * ''Stapelia hirsuta gariepensis'' * ''Stapelia hirsuta tsomoensis'' * ''Stapelia hirsuta vetula''

Distribution and habitat

This species is endemic to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and southern

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. Its wide distribution extends along the southern edge of the arid

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

region, throughout the "

Little Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent i ...

" in the southern Cape, as far west as the

Robertson Karoo Robertson Karoo is a semi-arid vegetation type, restricted to sections of the Breede River Valley, Western Cape Province, South Africa. It is a subtype of Karoo, Succulent Karoo (geographically an extension of the "Little Karoo") and is characteri ...

and the

Swartland The Swartland is a region of Western Cape Province that begins some north of Cape Town and consists of the area between the towns of Malmesbury, South Africa, Malmesbury in the south, Darling, Western Cape, Darling in the west, Piketberg in the ...

just outside

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. It can be found in the mainly winter rainfall areas, in the far west of South Africa, northwards through the

Namaqualand Namaqualand ( Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River int ...

region, as far north as southern Namibia. It is absent from the interior of

. File:Stapelia hirsuta - Buffelspoort.jpg File:Stapelia hirsuta Overberg SA.jpg File:Apocynaceae - Stapelia hirsuta crestata.JPG, ''S. hirsuta'' 'Crestata'

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15375655 hirsuta Flora of Southern Africa Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Plants described in 1753