Caralluma speciosa Description: This is one of the big clumping Caralluma that can reach one meter in height. It bears at the apex a many-flowered clusters of brownish-black flowers, similar in form and size to those of Campanula Trachelium.
Stem: 30-80 cm tall (but occasionally up to 120 cm tall), 2-3 cm thick, tetragonal, euphorbia-like, rather soft, light-green. The ribs first acute enlarge to form a continuous horny margins to the stems with conical, acute tubercles.
Leaves: Appear at intervals, rudimentary, spreading laterally spine-like.
Inflorescence: Perfectly symmetrical, spherical, 30-40-flowered pseudoumbel up to 10 cm in diameter.
Flowers: With a foetid rotten flesh odour that attract flies, about 4 cm in diameter, cup shaped 5-lobed, the corona tubes are yellow to orange. Corolla lobes are reddish-brown with small yellow dots. Corolla lobe margins are dark maroon or black and ciliate near the apex. Pedicel 4-6 mm long.
Fruit: Follicles, about 12 cm long, glabrous.
Seeds: 9 mm long, 7 mm broad, broadly margined, adorned with a tuft of hairs nearly 30 mm long.
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