Carrion Flower Duvalia corderoyi

The strange looking Stapeliad Duvalia corderoyi (Hooker f.) N. E. Brown, 1876, commonly called starfish flower or carrion flower, is a tropical, succulent plant from the dogbane family (Apocynaceae) and depends to the same subfamily Asclepiadoideae like Hoya plants.

Duvalia corderoyi is native to South Africa and the flowers have a very unpleasant excrement smell, but nevertheless they are very beautiful. Mostly the flowers are more redish or even dark-red, the green or green-brown colored Duvalia corderoyi flowers are much rarer. The genus Duvalia has been named by the British botanist Adrian Hardy Haworth (1768-1833) in honour to the French botanist and physician Henri-Auguste Duval (1777-1814).

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Image: Duvalia corderoyi