All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Encyclopaedia of Succulents. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.

Of all the duvalias, this specie is among the most distinct and has the largest flowers reaching almost 5 cm in diameter. The attractive brick-red flower is also unusual in having long purple hairs thickly covering the centre of the flower. Purplish colour simulate the rotting flesh of dead animals. These flowers attract beetles and carrion flies who pollinate the plant as they are fooled into trying to lay eggs on the flower.

Morphology (Identifying Characteristics):  Groundcover, clump forming. This species is easily identifiable by its thick six angled stems and its relatively large fleshy and very hairy flowers. These plants grow covering the whole land at their disposal.
Stem: Stems are typical for the genus in being small and creeping. Branches sub-globose, crowded, thick, leafless, decumbent and rooting, glabrous, dull green or purplish, six-angled; angles obtuse, toothed. In autumn, winter it may assumes a yellow/green colouring, it also tends to  redden in full sun and during the winter month.
Flower: From the sides of the stems, olive-green, with darker tips, or dull reddish-brown, 1 1/2in. to 2in. in diameter; lobes of corolla lanceolate-acuminate, fringed with clavate mauve-purple hairs; annulus clothed with soft hairs of the same colour. Different colored flowers can be produced produced on the same plant but not on the same branch.
Fruit: Flies pollinate the flowers resulting in the typical twin seed horns (follicles), which are decorative in themselves and often don't appear until a year later.
Blossoming time: Flowers are freely produced throughout the late summer and autumn.
Notes:  D. corderoy is a variable species with many different forms and clones both in the wild and in cultivation.

Advertising

Etymology:  The genus epithet "Duvalia" was named  after H. A. Duval (1777-1814) of Paris, a French botanist and physician,  author of " Enumeratio Plantarum Succulentarum in Horto Alenconio ").
The species name "corderoyi" comes from Justus Corderoy (1832-1911) English miller and succulent plant cultivator at Blewbury near Didcot, Berckshire (Now Oxfordshire)
 

Genus Duvalia
Duvalia is a Stapelia-like genus comprising small stem succulent plants with a creeping or mat forming habit, growing generally in the shade of shrubs. Corolla with the segments more or less replicate, and an elevated annulus (orb) on the disk; outer corona flat, entire, pentagonal, disk-like; inner corona of five small, entire, horizontal, ovoid, pointed, fleshy segments, somewhat resembling a bird's head when viewed sideways. Most of the species are natives of South Africa, but the distribution is disjunct, with section Arabica species found in the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia in the north, whilst section Duvalia comprises species from southern Africa which are found in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
 

This photo shows the nice symmetry of the flower, note the purplish hairs covering the uplifted 'ring' or annulus, as well as the yellowish club-shaped lobes in the centre.  See also the lanceolate-acuminate lobes of corolla fringed with clavate mauve-purple hairs.

Propagation: Easiest with stem cuttings. Allow cuttings to dry a day before planting. Stems must be laid (Not buried) on gritty compost and will then root from the underside of the stems. It can also be increased from seeds sowing in spring in moist, sandy peat moss. Barely cover seeds. Seeds germinate quickly.

All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Encyclopaedia of Succulents. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.