stapelia
See also: Stapelia
English edit
Etymology edit
From Stapelia, the genus name, after J. B. van Stapel.
Noun edit
stapelia (plural stapelias)
- (botany) Any of the genus Stapelia of low-growing succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa, and often giving off an odour of rotten flesh.
- 1835, The Gentleman′s Magazine, volume 159, page 234:
- […] the instinctive faculty […] sometimes falls into mistake and error, as in the instance which Mr. Kirby gives of the flesh-fly mistaking the blossom of the stapelia for carrion, the hen a piece of chalk for an egg ; and he may add the instance given by Dr. Roget, of the vulture mistaking the skin of an animal stuffed with hay for the carcase.
- 2005, Complete Guide to Orchids, Ortho Books, page 211:
- Prom.[Promenaea] stapelioides has 2-inch-wide yellow flowers with concentric red-brown markings, resembling the famous carrion flower stapelia, hence the epithet stapelioides.
- 2010, Marianne North, Abundant Beauty: The Adventurous Travels of Marianne North, Botanical Artist, page 204:
- He had also a collection of stapelias and other small prickly plants; some of them were almost invisible without a magnifying glass, but most interesting.
Synonyms edit
- (genus of odoriferous plants): carrion flower
Anagrams edit
Italian edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from translingual Stapelia.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
stapelia f (plural stapelie)
Further reading edit
- stapelia in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana