What is that smell?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

August 15, 2001

killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~

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The giant carrion flower (Stapelia gigantea) [sta pel' ee a gi gan tee' a] is a succulent from the arid places of southern Africa. The flower makes you look twice, but sniff only once. The flower appears to be a light-colored starfish out of the water and smells like something that been dead for a while.

The carrion fly wants a little meal and a dead thing on which to lay her eggs. The carrion flowers want to be pollinated. The carrion fly visits a flower, crawls around searching for the dead, gets covered with pollen, and flies away looking for some other dead thing.

killerplants' Photograph

Stapelia gigantea N.E. Brown
Plant of the Week 07/15/2002
Weird Plants Desktop - Carrion Flower

The fly is fooled, but not smart enough to figure out that the aroma is not wafting off dead things. It proceeds to the next flower, where its behavior is repeated. But the fly leaves pollen from the first flower on the second and picks up more pollen. The carrion flowers get pollinated, better yet; the odds are that they get cross-pollinated.

Eventually, the fly will find a dead thing in the desert on which to leave her eggs. Unwittingly, she has performed two services to the ecosystem. She has cross-pollinated the Stapelia, leaving a generation of seeds more likely to survive. And her young will help remove a carcass, reducing the spread of disease and recycling the nutrients to other life.

To view a photograph of the Stapelia gigantea, click on the link:

http://www.mendelu.cz/user/hanacek/index012.htm