Stapelia buds and bloom

Just days after posting about my Stapelia and Huernia plants I got my first bloom!  My Stapelia flavopurpurea had buds on it when I received it in the mail, but I wasn't sure they would open after the shock of cross-country travel.  And they were very small, so I figured it would be a little while before opening anyway.  But the first one opened this weekend!

Stapelia flavopurpurea bloom - larger than life.  This bloom is really just slightly larger than a quarter.  (Click picture to see larger.)

Stapelias have two rings of corona.  The inner corona on this Stapelia is the tall and curly purple one, while the outer corona is shorter and yellow.  The species name flavopurpurea comes from the latin names for yellow and purple.  There's a neat drawing of the coronas and more information here.  I got my nose right up to the bloom, but there is no odor for this plant.  There are more buds on the plant, so hopefully I'll get to see some more blooms over the next couple of weeks.

Stapelia flavopurpurea buds.  (Click picture to see larger.)

I also noticed that my original Stapelia (S. gigantea) has some buds forming on the long trailing stem.

Stapelia gigantea stem with buds

Those buds are held farther away from the stem than the flavopurpurea species.  The blooms are considerably larger, which is probably part of the reason.  They're also much smellier.

Stapelia gigantea bud and new stem forming.

The appendage below the obvious bud appears to be another stem forming on this already long trailing stem.  I take this as a good sign, as most of the Stapelia giganteas I have seen in bloom are blooming from the ends of long trailing stems.  In fact, when I bought this plant, I picked out the one that already had a downward stem started.

I'll try to keep taking pictures as the bud matures.  Before opening, the S. gigantea buds look like balloons with a diameter of about 3 or 4 inches.  They are pretty neat.