Cant be as bad as 'vinegary cow manure " used for biogas....

Your comparison is nonsense, but at least you're not trying to claim these too as monocarpic, so I salute you.

Youve not smelt it, so you cannot judge. Then again, half of your replies are idiotic, so whatever. "mr foothills of the andes cactus"...

If that were the case, most of your north american cacti and echinopsis cacti arent true desert cacti ever, if you want to nitpick.

What makes a "desert cactus"? really really low precipation. Boy do rebutias grow dry ...And the general absence of tree cover. Echinopsis, cleistocactus grow what can be best described as "dry savana" and "rocky slopes". But guess what, hot with low precipation.

See, opuntia humifusa and fragilis, escobaria grow nowhere near deserts, yet i dont see you calling out on them either. There are opuntiads and echinocereus in the grand canyon, yet it too is green, and not a proper desert. Escontria and polaskia come from central mexico, from an arid volcanic terrain. Nowhere near a desert. Cereus and melocactus too......

Stefan,

I'm staying off your posts, please stay off of mine. You've rarely had anything positive or edifying to add, never mind nearly always being snarky and/or contentious about something in them to the point of being a bore. While I respect your right to make a post on this C&S Forum, please restrain yourself from adding your thoughts my posts, as I find your comments generally pointlessly argumentative and your tone consistently unpleasant with me. I don't know nor do I care that you might have something to prove to me or us that you know it all, but you have a penchant for arguing for argument's sake and nothing else.

No you dont. You are being obrstructive and an annoyance. And there is such a thing as uncalled for.

Here's Edithcolea grandis, I think not so stinky, though it's another plant that I haven't seen IRL, but its splendor and its common name of 'Persian Carpet' are well-earned if a bit ambitious - its range isn't known to extend to Iran.

In case anyone doesn't know why they stink (although some have a nice fragrance, most do not), their pollinators are generally flies, and nothing attracts flies more than a wafting aroma of decomposing meat. These orchids of the succulent world don't all smell as nasty as those first two pictured above; there are many levels of foulness.

Stapelia grandiflora hybrid

Stapelia obducta

The stapeliads tend to smell like dead mice and it's foul but I find the pig manure smell of Brachystelma barberi worse for some reason

Nik,

I had heard that Brachystelma is nausea-inducing; thanks for confirming.

SLD,

Probably not, as the A. t. flower is so much larger, but they're downright awful. I've not seen an A. t. except on the Internet. We need to know the stench factor, so please volunteer yourself the next time!

cactus... How does S. obducta differ from S. hirsuta or are the synonyms? Very lovely in either case. I've tried to germinate Edithcolea seed but no luck, guess I'll have to hunt around for a cutting and try to kill that.

geo, S. obducta's flower doesn't have the star shape that S. hirsuta has. Notice that the former is roundish, whereas the latter isn't. Agreed that the fuzziness and the colour are similar, but as you likely know, so many of these are superficially the same.

Great, I love smelly discussions! I had never heard of Brachystelma barberi. What an incredible bloom, even apart from the smell! I greatly enjoyed the blooms of my Stapelia gigantea last year, though they were not overwhelmingly stinky. Which was all to the good, as I had to bring it inside with several blooms still developing. It was noticeable though... I am waiting for my Edithcolea to grow to blooming size. Conny gave me one if her seedlings last year. I doubt it will be this year, maybe next. At least it is still alive. And then there is Kevin’s Duvalia corderoyi cutting. I am hoping it will bloom this year. No beating the Stapelia for sheer size though: 38 cm across.

I've been in the stench of At, and it was awful.

From Wikipedia about At:

“Analyses of chemicals released by the spadix show the stench includes dimethyl trisulfide (like limburger cheese), dimethyl disulfide, trimethylamine (rotting fish), isovaleric acid (sweaty socks), benzyl alcohol(sweet floral scent), phenol (like Chloraseptic), and indole (like feces).”

It seems everybody misses the “sweet floral scent” in there ;-).

gd, your plant's scent always reminded me of day-used socks - not so bad but not so pleasant, either. It's a fairly common landscape plant in Southern California, so when you see a bunch of them in flower, it could get a little rank.

As I said, I've never smelled an A. t., but that sweet floral scent's isolation is a real laugher; I read that in the voice of an oenophile describing an outstanding Mendoza.

LOL maybe you have selective anosmia. This is a very easily tested genetic mutation that follows mendelevian genetics perfectly, As an organic chemist it is one of the things we all laughed about. People with this genetic makeup can't smell isovaleric acid or isobutyric acid at up to 25% concentration in water though most people can smell it diluted over a million to one. There are similar taste based mutations which cause people to be unable to taste certain things. Anyone who has ever taken a genetics class will probably have encountered one of these tests.

Personally I like the smell of shunk (butyl mercaptan ) and indole or methyl indole in mild concentrations.

Cmh, that Stapelia has for me more than a whiff of poopiness. Next time I will see if I can catch the socks. I had three at a time open inside, windows closed. It was not as bad as I expected. But a bed full will be a nose full.

gd,

Mind you, the sock smell-tones I was describing were based on local artisan socks (a wool/silk blend), not 100% polyester, worn on a moderately-ambulatory day, in case you're wondering.

I too don't mind skunk smell, as long as it's not concentrated.

I was able to visit (through a bus trip from the Port Authority in NYC - what a crazy place) to Gerry Barad's greenhouse (where are those pictures?) once, being feted (and I was a complete stranger to him, introduced and invited through a mutual friend) by him and his wife Bea at their farm. Left-over lamb for lunch, so many plants and stories, plenty of cuttings - he couldn't have been more welcoming and gracious. He introduced me to some stinkers, but also to, surprisingly for me, a number of them that had delightful fragrances, one or two of them smelling sweet-chocolately. He had ALL of the Ascleps, and grew lots of other stuff, too - he was a perennial winner at the Philadelphia Flower Show in a number of categories, IIRC. Give the url at the bottowm a whirl sometime - some great flowers and plants, some of his hybrids too - the man had been about ev.erywhere there were succulent Ascleps, and plenty of other places too. It was a very good day visiting him. RIP Bea and Gerry.

Asclepiadic Orchidectomy

I'm not sure it beats various arums, having smelt both (but not at the same time).

db, A. t. is an arum (one of its common names is the titan arum, hence its specific, I guess).

I'd try to stay in the same room as it and leave just before swooning in disgust, but it sounds pretty nasty.

I look at one sometimes, and it reminds me of an all-night dance party. This one might be Orbea doldii.

Lana Malan's plum-coloured Life Saver.

Herbert Guariento's Orbeanthus hardyii. Just so you know, any and all of these plants that have been described for some time have at least six names in their respective histories. Classified and reclassified near to death, they strive one.

Purple spray persuasion

You would think Thailand, being a wet place, would have difficulty growing stinky plants well - you'd be wrong. Just so many nice plants from there.

Not an Asclepiad, just another example of Thai master growing. This is Digitostigma caput-medusae. Courtesy of Pijaya Vachajitpan

What a fabulous D. caput medusae! I've always called it Astrophytum caput-medusae, don't know which name is current. I have two seedlings that I got last year. One is looking good, the second looks o.k. Hopefully, some day, with a lot of growth.... Would taking off the flower buds help it put more of its energy into growth?

Here it is flowering last September

Sorry for the thread hijack... back to stinky plants...

Geoforce, right now my big Edithcolea isn't looking its happiest. I'm hoping, with spring arriving, it will perk up and start growing. If it does, I can then send you cuttings for you to try to kill :-)

I grew a lot of them from seed (gave most of them away last year). They germinated really well and quickly, but it was my own seed, so pretty fresh.

sld, you never need to say sorry for taking the thread in a different direction - it will always be interesting. Nice flowering plant. Yes, they can also be called Astrophytum - in fact, I should. Shortly after this plant was discovered, the seeds (at least in San Diego, circa 2004-5) had a standard price of $20 each. It's much changed now, as grafted plants are relatively common and flowering, pollination and seed-making are easy.

Did you perform the pollination on your E. g. or you let the flies do it?

Succulent staps sharing the same name as a disease? It just gets better and better. Thanks, Herbert.

My E.g. was outside when it flowered, and the flies were happy to oblige :-)

My A. caput-medusae seedlings aren't grafted. I'm guessing grafted ones would grow more quickly?

I do like the name of that H. 'Pink Eye'. Very appropriate, lol!

Cmh, that visit to Gerry Barad must have been an incredible experience. The website is fascinating. True beauty and incredible weirdness. I looked through it once, but I will keep the tab open for some time.

That A. caput-medusae is gorgeous, and own root too, by the look of it. It was on my wish list for a long time, and I just got one a few weeks ago. Grafted. I would have preferred own root, but I was happy to at least have one. Sld, great work with getting yours to grow and bloom!

Gdinie, your caput-medusae looks great. I really would like to try these from seed.

I would really appreciate that SLD. All of my Stapelias just jumped into rapid growth a few weeks ago. Multiple axillary buds developing at the same time on many branches which I had not seen before and was not expecting so plants are really going to be a lot bigger it seems when growth is complete..

gdinie.. That is a really super looking texture on your A. caput-medusae. A full pot of those gorgonesque snakes would be amazingly effective.

Speaking of the Titan Arum, look what shows up in my FB feed

Wow. Where?

gd, I didn't get the geographical information. I'll try to find it today, but the blooming is becoming much more common, as these are people-attractors for botanical gardens.

Believe that may be the one in Kew. There is a time-lapse of the Titan flower opening on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD75AA9m03E

It seems I missed the blooming of Amorphophallus konjac at the RBG in Hamilton last year. Not as impressive as At, but still probably pretty stinky.

Thanks, geo, for tracking it.

More fun with this plant - I came across an information sheet. So much to make of it.

Titan of Flowers

gd, yes, konjac is stinky. Did you know they make noodles from it?

I also realized that, if you brought one of these aboard a vessel / vehicle, you could claim it as your carrion luggage.

Too good to not share, and from Wikipedia of all places - the close-up of an Edithcolea grandis flower:

Also, it's a monotypic genus.

Yum, noodles.... :-0

gdinie...

Lots of people raise A. konjac in pots, but I'm too darn lazy to do that. My zone is fine for it in the ground so I raise a good size patch of it for the gorgeous foliage each year, but it never gets quite large enough to bloom in my garden. Probably if I heaped on the fertilizer I might force it but Just the foliage is fine with me.

Dracunculus vulgaris is another stinker. Grows well in my zone as well and another nice foliage plant but it blooms nicely here.

Geoforce, I remember I once looked into growing it in a pot, but I have too many plants as it is, so I decided to forego the pleasure. It is tempting though...

Well, my old Edithcolea kept looking sadder and sadder, so I decided to dump her out and see what was up with her roots. Should have taken a before photo, but here she is a couple of years ago in happier days...

This originally was a really small Logee's plant. As it grew, the branches would take root where they lay on the potting mix. When it came out of the pot, it was pretty much a bunch of different root masses joined together by stems. Turned out that the original growing stem had died back, but the rest of the roots looked fine.

Some of the stems almost look like they'd been too cold. I had it in our sunroom this winter, and that room does get pretty cool when we have really cold weather. It had been there one winter before (the pic above) and did fine, but maybe it was cooler this time. I really don't don't know what was wrong with it.

Here some pics of it now...

This is what looks a bit like cold damage to me

Cut it up and potted up the sections with roots in pumice, kept the cuts above ground.

cuttings waiting to callous over

The potted up rooted sections in my hospital corner

My hospital corner :-)

So, Geoforce, it looks like I won't have good cuttings for you, but hopefully eventually I will have a few rooted plants to share.