ORBEA CAUDATA
ORBEA CAUDATA Orbea Caudata is a penta-pointed fleshy starry flower blooming in late summer or autumn. The blooms are delicate and beautiful but exude an intense smell of rotten meat. This perfume attracts blow flies which are the natural pollinators. It is a low clumping perennial succulent species that spread over the ground forming lax cushions. The stems are long-tapering teeth-like, spine-like, more or less spaced, horizontally spreading or up-curved. The flowers are usually solitary or a few bunched together in pseudo-umbels near the base of stem and rarely more than two open at once. Flowering stalks are erect; buds are angled and terminating in a slight spiral. Orbea Caudata grows in dry, rocky places dominated by different shrub communities. It almost always grows in half-shaded position under the protection of bushes and small trees. This species is found in widely separated localities, hence resulting in several varieties of subspecies.