A stink in time...

The Duvaliandra dioscoridis started opening while we were running around setting up for a champagne "celebrate spring" party.  Oooh, fancy.  I have to admit I was a little worried that people would walk over and try to smell it.  Of course, I did, and....ugh!  Not dirty socks like the Stapelia scitula, this little stinker smells like straight-up poo!  Fortunately, you have to be right up to it to appreciate the aroma.  I smell a prank coming on later tonight....(heehee)

Slowly, but surely, the leaves opened up over the next several hours.   I think it's a pretty nice accomplishment, and I am feeling rather satisfied with my superior indoor gardening abilities.  I really hope I can bloom it again....even better yet, bloom all of these random Stapeliads I've got growing right now.  Maybe I don't have superior indoor gardening abilities, but plants have an incredible adaptive capacity to grow despite being confronted with less-than-ideal circumstances.  Supposedly, these plants grow in the shade of larger plants and stones in the wild, and this was my reasoning behind selecting them for my northern window succulent garden.  Despite accusations to the contrary, I really don't like killing off succulents, but they are so interesting it is impossible not to at least try to grow them.

Here are some more photos of the flower once it completely opened:

Note that an arm is starting to branch out from the main stem!  Cool!

FEED ME SEYMOUR, FEED ME NOW!!!

"Must be blood."

"Two-ey, that's gross!"

"Must be fresh."

"I don't wanna hear this."

"Feed me, Seymour, feed me all night looong!"

The Little Shop of Horrors is here at last!  The Duvaliandra bud is beginning to open!  It has been almost a month since the bud formed, and now the flower is going to be bigger than the branch!   Whoa! 

The petals are opening up like a mouth, and I can't help but think of Audrey II from the Little Shop of Horrors.  If it starts singing, I won't fall for its empty promises.  I stayed awake through the second act of that Broadway play.  Don't feed the plants!

Poor Audrey.

Stay tuned for more pics!  I know you wish you were here for the blooming of this rare and endangered succulent plant, but I promise plenty of photos.

Chicken Little and More Uplifting News...

AACH!  Adenium shock!  Plants Are The Strangest People (blog see link below) opined in a 2008 Wizard of Oz plant analogy thread that the plant best representing the Cowardly Lion is the Adenium obesum.  The reason for this dubious designation is the annoying habit adeniums have of dropping leaves for apparently any reason: a mighty wind...a change in position......a dirty look.  In my case, repotting as well.  I hope this is just shock and not something more sinister like caudex or root rot.  Gross.  Did you know that some of the fungi that rot out your plants can actually kill you?  It's true, although you won't get infected unless your immune system gives out.  So treat yourself right or your roots could rot.

"The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!  No, wait!  That's just my yellow leaves falling to the ground." --Adenium "Chicken little" arabicum seedling

It would look like a sweet 80's-retro, Cyndi Lauper-inspired variegated Mohawk, if this was what was supposed to happen.    Here's hoping for a speedy recovery, Chicken little, and strong new growth over the upcoming growing season. 

In other news...

The Duvaliandra dioscoridis bud is blowing-up faster than last season's "Biggest Loser" contestants.  How big will it get before blooming?  Stay tuned.  It's easily double in size from the last post.  The tips of the petals are becoming slightly salmon colored. 

All is not lost in northern exposure! The unbearable anticipation continues!!

Spring Growth Update

Duvaliandra dioscoridis.  So, this is in the same group of plants as the Stapelia plants, and I haven't found too much information on it.  I will walk you through all that I know.

Sub-family:  Asclepiadaceae
Genus: Duvaliandra
Species: dioscoridis

Duvaliandra is a monotypic genus consisting of this one species.

D. dioscoridis is endemic to the small Island of Socotra, the largest of an archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean, just east of the horn of Africa.  It is part of the Republic of Yemen.  Socotra is so remote that many of the plants on the island are unique to this location, and cannot be found elsewhere in the world.  UNESCO declared Socotra a world heritage site, due to the extraordinary biodiversity.  A rare succulent, indeed.

This plant is of the Arid Lands crop that Gethsemane has been selling for the past month.  Bob Webb recommended it to me, so of course I picked it up.  The specimen I picked had two tiny buds on its branching arm, and fortunately, one has been progressing nicely, and hopefully will bloom soon!

You can see the distal bud is starting to take off, but the proximal bud isn't doing too much.  Probably gone already.

Looks like the flower will have five petals...

How about that?  I bet it will open soon. The bud is slower to develop that my Stapelia scitula, which blooms all the time.  Maybe this means the flower will last longer than a week?  Oh, the unbearable anticipation!  I'll post a photo of the flower once it blooms...it is already bigger than this photo this morning!