Stapelia clavicorona I.Verd.

국표에 없다.

• Fl. Pl. South Africa 11: t. 407 (1931) 

• This name is reported by Apocynaceae as an accepted name in the genus Stapelia (family Apocynaceae).

  The record derives from Tropicos (data supplied on 2024-06-04) which reports it as an accepted name (record 2600123)

Diagnostic Description

Plants of S. clavicorona usually consist of only a few large stems, generally between six and 10 of them, but occasionally very large specimens up to 500 mm in diameter are found. The stems may reach 50 mm thick (including the teeth) and are by far the most robust in the genus. They are subtly mottled with purple (particularly if kept in a sunny spot) rather after the manner of Stapeliopsis neronis and this phenomenon is otherwise known in Stapelia mainly in plants of S. hirsuta from the sandstone mountains of the south-western Cape. The tubercles on the stems start off soft and tipped with a small but quite broad leaf-rudiment which soon falls off. They gradually become covered with a pale, corky, greyish layer which can eventually form an almost continuous greyish covering along the angles. The tubercles are also unusual in that the leaf-rudiment lies more towards the middle of the tubercle relative to the axis of the stem rather than at the top, which is more typical for Stapelia. In contrast to the robust stems, the flowers of S. clavicorona are relatively small and they are usually around 50 mm in diameter. They emit a rather unpleasant excrement-like or urine-like smell. From near the tips of the lobes more or less right to the centre, the corolla is covered with low, transverse ridges that become roughly concentric circles on the united part. The corolla is completely flat except for a very short tube in the centre around the base of the gynostegium and it has short, relatively broad lobes. On the inside it is glabrous except for slightly clavate, vibratile cilia along the margins of the lobes and a dense cluster of somewhat worm-like, downward-pointing hairs which fill up the tube. Flies have been found to lay their eggs among these small hairs in the tube and sometimes the area between the gynostegium and the corolla tube has been seen to be full of small, writhing maggots that have hatched from these eggs. In the centre of the flower there is a dark, almost black gynostegium. This consists of narrow, channelled outer lobes with recurved tips which are not particularly unusual. However, the inner corona, with its five pairs of clavate horns is unlike anything else in Stapelia and is reminiscent of species such as Tromotriche herrei. Each lobe is flattened towards the base and then rises in the centre into a very swollen, clavate tip. Behind each of them is a large dorsal process (larger than the lobe itself) which is laterally flattened towards the base and, again, very swollen and clavate towards the tip. These lobes are not brightly shiny but nevertheless glisten somewhat and, when viewed under a microscope, are seen to be covered with large cells whose outer walls are shiny and raised into a rounded dome. The outer lobes do not have these swollen cells, being dull by comparison and not glistening at all. The stout stems and robust pedicels suggest that, despite the relatively small and almost glabrous flowers, this species is most closely related to those with large flowers.

Stapelia clavicorona I.Verd. (worldfloraonline.org)

 

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