h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK, just a little entry for today to try and get myself back into things.

I've a pretty serious collection of plants here. Yesterday a very special one was flowering. It was a Ceropegia stapeliiformis, the first time that species has flowered here as far as I'm aware of.

Here are pictures of the flowers:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Weird%20and%20Wonderful%20Plants/Ceropegiastapeliiformes1a.jpg

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Weird%20and%20Wonderful%20Plants/Ceropegiastapeliiformes2a.jpg

The plant itself is a succulent vine with a strangely textured and mottled surface. It is easy to grow ... just detach a portion, let it dry out for a couple of days, and plant it shallowly, or even on top of the soil with a small stone to weigh it down. It roots easily and the vines lengthen quite rapidly.

Ceropegia is a very diverse group of plants - most of them are vines, some arise from a thick tuber. There are about two hundred known species, from Africa through Asia to northern Australia. They have distinctive and often very weird flowers. Ceropegia stapeliiformis is named for its resemblance to a Stapelia or carrion flower - in the thick, succulent stems. In fact Ceropegia is related to the carrion flowers ... somewhat distantly, but still. Ceropegia stapeliiformis' flower is about midway in terms of weirdness, for the genus. In nature it is found in scrub and thickets from the Eastern Cape to the northern parts of South Africa.

I only have 3 Ceropegia species so far ... I should be able to get more, since most species can easily be grown from cuttings. But they're hard to find in conventional nurseries ... I'll have to go to a specialist South African succulent nursery like Gariep Plants. But I'll have to do that someday anyways ...

Awesome, thanks for the pictures, Willem.

wow! Willem - as soon as I saw the subject line I knew that I was going to enjoy your journal Entry! You are indeed lucky to be able to find such amazing plants to grow. It inspires me to try to do something here - I'll get my thinking cap on.

Thanks for writing about these plants, I loved the photos of the flowers - they are really incredible.

Lanzababy

flowers, Willem. Their pigmentation is interesting as well. They were nicely staged by hands to give one a notion of scale. Thanks a lot for sharing these.

More otherworldly flowers...

Hello everybody! Thanks for the comments. The flower is already gone ... they last only a day or two. But I have the piccy! I'm sorry the 'head-on' photo came out a bit blurry ... I still have a bit of trouble taking close-up pics with this ancient camera. Anyways I hope I'll have more opportunities for photographing those flowers. I will try and get some of Ceropegia woodii as well ... they flower almost constantly, and the flowers are much smaller ... and also somewhat weirder.

That's absolutely fascinating, Willem. Thanks for sharing.

Stunning flowers and lovely writing. Keep it up. So glad you got photos before it disappeared.

Websailor