Fantastic, Kevin - thanks for the detailed photos.

Thanks Jeff!! =)

Fantastic flower. My sister had one of these in her office. When it bloomed, others made her remove it. Phew!

Awesome pix, thanks. And, yeah sure, too bad about not sharing the smell.

tj

@socks If it wasn't for the pandemic, I would have had this in my office too. Who knows how long I could get away with the stink for. Maybe not very long...

@tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱ Yup too bad indeed. =)

At last it did open! Great pictures. Now we wait for close ups of the maggots...

@gdinieontarioz5 I took some photos and videos of the eggs. They are really gross! Some of them fell onto my plant bench, so I might take more over the next few days. Maybe I should just direct-message them all to you. O_o

Eggzactly my thought., too. But, to be perfectly honest, in the realm of succulent milkweed stank, this one does not amount to a hill of beans. IIRC, it's not unlike newly worn socks on a spring day, but that's just me.

So, what is the stinkiest Asclepiad around that's likely to be grown in a pot indoors? This excludes Amorphophallus titanum :-)

My Pseudolithos cubiformis x ? smells vaguely like a dead mouse, not terribly strongly. When you're in its general vicinity, after a while you start wondering where the dead mouse is.

I haven't noticed a stink at all from my Hoodia pilifera (or pilifera hybrid, not sure). A good thing, since it flowers frequently through the winter.

The one time my Edithcolea flowered for me, I didn't notice a stink at all, but it was outside at the time.

Also haven't noticed much of a stink from Huernia zebrina.

@ewwmayo I think it is time you changed your username. With threatening to flood me with pictures of fly spawn, you should be “ewwmaggots”. ;-)

@gdinieontarioz5 Hahaha, I will spare you that grossness in order to keep my username! I did leave my camera and microscope out. If I can manage some more interesting than gross photos, I'll try to post them.

@cactusmcharris, interior BC Z4/5 and @stupidlazydog CT zone 5b/6a My Duvalia corderoyi is probably worse? It's a stronger smell but doesn't seem to really attract the flies like my Stapelia gigantea has. My Pseudolithos migiurtinus doesn't really smell much at all. I need to get a cubiformis again because my only one died on shipment. I never noticed a smell really from Huernia zebrina or schneideriana (although I don't grow them anymore).

Actually, in truth I would love a close up of the maggots. Here or privately ;-). I could not get close enough when mine bloomed. Though I do have a few pretty yucky pictures.

Bring on the disgusting things!!!

Correction to my post above, the black winged insect on the bottom is actually a parasitoid Chalcid wasp!

Chalcid wasp? Probably seeing if it can find eggs or larvae to lay its eggs in?

Hopefully you are able to enlarge these photos as they have much greater detail! I thought it was going to be just an afternoon of gross maggots only, but things turned out much more interesting. The photo I posted earlier today turned out to be just perfect with the host and parasitoid both at the same time.

The Chalcid wasp might be laying eggs be laying eggs among the live wiggling maggots. It also spend considerable time eating the Flesh fly eggs on the left side of the image - you can see where they are all chewed up.

Side shot of wasp as it eats more fly eggs:

Didn't quite get a chance to work on the videos of the wiggling maggots, but they are a bit less interesting.

Great photos Kevin.

Good to see beneficial at work...