stapelia

noun

1. Any of the genus Stapelia of low-growing succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa, and often giving off an odour of rotten flesh.

   “[…]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.”

   “Prom.^([Promenaea]) stapelioides has 2-inch-wide yellow flowers with concentric red-brown markings, resembling the famous carrion flower stapelia, hence the epithet stapelioides.”

   “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.”