Stapelia grandifloraMasson

Carrion flower

WFO wfo-0001102540 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. a Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2012-12-16 / obs. 84586723
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. b Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690811
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. c Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690804
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. d Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690818
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. e Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690828
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. f Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690780
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. g Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690838
Stapelia grandiflora, photographed by Nicola van Berkel
fig. h Nicola van Berkel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 182690798

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 4 botanical countries

Regions where Stapelia grandiflora is native: Cape Provinces, Free State, Lesotho, Northern Provinces Cape ProvincesFree StateLesothoNorthern Provinces
Native distribution of Stapelia grandiflora, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA
Free State OFS
Lesotho LES
Northern Provinces TVL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 31 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Gonostemon grandiflorus (N.E.Br.) Fisch. & C.A.Mey. ex C.A.Mey.
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus (Masson) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. ambiguus (Masson) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. apicalis (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. arnotii (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. desmentianus (N.E.Br.) B.L.Rob. ex Millsp. & Loes.
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. fergusoniae (R.A.Dyer) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. fulvus (Sweet) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. lineatus (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. pallidus (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon grandiflorus var. senilis (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon macowanii (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon macowanii var. abrasus (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Gonostemon macowanii var. conformis (N.E.Br.) P.V.Heath
  • Stapelia ambigua Masson
  • Stapelia arnotii N.E.Br.
  • Stapelia conformis N.E.Br.
  • Stapelia conformis var. conformis
  • Stapelia desmetiana N.E.Br.
  • Stapelia desmetiana var. pallida N.E.Br.
  • Stapelia flavirostris N.E.Br.
  • Stapelia macowanii var. conformis (N.E.Br.) L.C.Leach
  • Stapelia obscura N.E.Br.
  • Stapelia senilis N.E.Br.

and 7 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.