Carrion Flowers--Do They REALLY Smell Like a Dead Cat?

Hey everybody and welcome to this installment of "Mykey's Backyard Blog".

The Corpse Flower, aka Amorphophallus Wilhelma

Today I want to talk about Stapelia Gigantea, or the "Carrion Flower".  If you all remember back a few years ago, a couple that wanted to marry made a big stink in the news (no pun intended) by wanting to get married in front of the largest flower in the world at the time.  That flower was the "Corpse Flower" and the main problem with it was that it stank the high heavens just like a rotting corpse.   The first photo here is an example of that flower, ripped right from Wikipedia.

The flower is quite striking when you first see it, isn't it?  I think it's perhaps one of the neatest things I've ever seen, but I sure wouldn't want that thing stinking up my home!  Can you imagine how much scent something that size gives off?  PeeYew!

Today we are not speaking of this here Corpse Flower though, but a distant relative of this guy called "Stapelia Gigantea".  It's a much smaller variety of plant and flower but the effect is still much the same.  It gives off the scent of dead things in order to attract flies to it, who in turn carry the pollen stuff around and fertilize the plants.  I'm not really sure why they do that, because from everything I read, the carrion flower can only propagate through stem cuttings...much like mine was done.

The Carrion Flower is a very striking, large, star shaped flower  with thick, fleshy petals that open from a cactus like plant.  I've been growing mine in the backyard for two years now, and I've shown you some brief photos of it in the past.  I'm happy to report that this year, it decided to bloom, and it has not stopped blooming since it started about two months ago!

Now, to the subject of this post...Yes, it does stink.  Some say that it smells much like a dead cat decomposing.  I, personally have either had my smeller disrupted after having smoked for 20 years (I'll be 3 years smoke free in October!) or just have been exceptionally lucky with my Carrion Flowers, because I am unable to smell them at all!  Of course, I've not been stupid enough to stick my nose in there to find out what it smells like!

The plant itself is not like anything you would expect it to be.  If I had to classify it myself, I would call it a succulent.  It LOOKS like a cactus with tall, spiny columns of "X" shaped stalks all sticking out of the ground.  In actuality, It's just one or two stalks in the ground that have grown in clusters outward and upward.

HUGE Flower Head of the Carrion Flower

It grows best in full sun with moderate water.  Your soil should be porous and drain well.  I've let it get too wet a couple of times, and it really, REALLY doesn't like that.  When that happens the stalks turn white and die out, sorta.  The dried parts have to stay on the plant though, so you just have to deal with the icky looking parts once it happens.  Me personally, I was too afraid to cut the dead areas off.

There are two really impressive things about these flowers:  Their size, and their coloring.

Their color is flesh colored...a kind of peach looking star.  Veins of reddish purple run through the entire flower in a consistent pattern.  They don't really look like veins, but I can think of no other way to describe them.  The flowers are probably neatest right before they are ready to open when the resemble big balloons attached to cactus type vines.  If you've ever seen a balloonflower, these flowers do much the same thing.

The first flowers of the season for this plant are the largest.  My first flower was approximately the size of both of my hands put together.  Since that one flower, the largest has been about one hand size.

Another shot to give size perspective of the Carrion flower.

While not the most pleasant flower in the garden, I highly recommend the Carrion Flower to everyone for it's novelty.  Not everyone can say that they have one, and they are very easy to grow.

Have fun and keep gardening!