Tuesday, January 19, 2021

The Huntington: stinky and sticks

Last week we looked at the paddle and ball shapes found in the Huntington's Desert Garden. Today it's the sticks! Starting with the stinky sticks called stapelia. Well, more accurately the plant is called stapelia and the sticks themselves don't stink...

It's the flowers that do.

They're pollinated by flies and smell like rotting meat. Yum.

But they are terribly fascinating.

And even quite beautiful.


The rest of today's sticks aren't stinky. This one is Stenocereus eruca, aka the creeping devil.

Most of the rest are going to go unnamed. I could guess, but that wouldn't do any of us any good.










Borzicactus aureispinus above and below? (maybe)


Hmmm, I think the golden guys in the front half of this picture are Borzicactus aureispinus as well.




And so this is the end of the sticks. But do not despair! There is one more Huntington Desert Garden post yet to come!


Weather Diary, Jan 18: Hi 53, Low 35/ Precip 0 

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

20 comments:

  1. I love stapelias. Even got a video of a fly pollinating one of mine:
    https://youtu.be/lrhtMbf9G00

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    1. Nice work! I remember watching them swarm my first bloom, and just how quickly the maggots showed up.

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  2. Love the photos of that stapeliad. I swear, it's in flower every time I visit!

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  3. The combinations that are growing into their prime together make my heart swell. My goal is to recreate combos that in time will do the same. If only I had another 25-50 years, but I do have a vision!!!

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    1. And I am sure that vision is gonna make it happen!

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  4. I once returned home from a trip overseas to a full bloom potted Stapelia the living room. Oh, the stench. The flower is stunning though, like an underwater creature. My current Stapelia has tiny, scentless (!) blooms.
    The last photo is perfection!

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    1. I remember when one bloomed in the basement but it was facing the wall so I didn't know that was where the stench was coming from. I was afraid something had died...

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  5. I have a few of these as houseplants, tiny compared to their maturity!
    Huntington's designs are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

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  6. I like your simplified classification system :) Were the Stapelias stinky from a distance? I just have one small plant in a pot and I usually can't smell it until I get very close - the flies notice the "scent" before I do.

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  7. How nice to come home from the awfice and have a nice stroll around the Huntington. Last summer I was sure I was going to be able to make a spring road trip to Santa Barbra with a Sunday AM zoom in to the Huntington-surely Covid would be gone by then, right ?? Wrong.

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  8. Gorgeous photos. Hopefully you can get back there this year.

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  9. Yes, the flowers are really special, along with the plant forms, themselves. I can see that sometime I need to make a trip to the Huntington Desert Garden. Fascinating collection!

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    1. Plan to spend the whole day, there is much to see.

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  10. I especially like the composition of last shot with the curtain of tall, columnar cactus in the background and agave + rocks in the foreground. It must have taken years to grow.

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