Stapelia engleriana Schltr.

Small succulent forming clump to 300 mm diam., with some rhizomatous stems. Stems 30-300 mm long, 10-22 mm thick, prostrate to ascending above ground, shortly pubescent, grey-green; tubercles 2-4 mm long, widely spaced along stem and broadly conical, joined into 4 obscure obtuse angles along stem, stem ± square in cross-section; leaf-rudiments <1 mm long. Inflorescences pubescent, 1-3 randomly distributed along stem, each with 1-3 flowers developing usually in gradual succession on short peduncle (<5 mm long) with few deltoid bracts <1 mm long; pedicel 10-18 mm long, 2 mm thick, pale green, ascending with spreading apex holding flower facing horizontally; sepals 4-6 mm long, 1 mm broad at base, ovate-acuminate. Corolla 18-22 mm diam., rotate with lobes folded tightly back under tube to form ring around gynostegium; outside purplish on lobes to cream at base of tube, with 5 prominent (not raised) longitudinal veins on each lobe; inside finely transversely rugulose fading away towards base of tube and beyond middle of lobes, dark purple-brown to red becoming pale yellow spotted with purple-brown in lower half of tube, glabrous except for small short dark hairs (<0.25 mm long) along edge of lobes near margins and fine acute papillae in tube becoming longer (±0.25 mm) and white in lower half of tube; tube ±3-5 mm long, 10 mm broad, pentagonal, steep-sided with flat base around stipe, with corolla thickened below bases of lobes; lobes 10-12 mm long, 10-12 mm broad at base, tightly reflexed under corolla, ovate-deltate. Corona ±9.5-10.0 mm tall, ±8-11 mm broad, raised on obtusely pentagonal stipe 1.0-1.5 mm long; outer lobes 3-4 mm long, 3 mm broad, ascending-spreading, obtusely subquadrate to circular, obtusely bilobed and notched at apex, purple-brown becoming yellow along edges towards base, with margins folded slightly downwards and above slightly channelled towards base; inner lobes 5-8 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers then connivent-erect in column above style-apex and recurved above, dorsiventrally flattened towards base becoming terete above with clavate-tuberculate apex, with ascending laterally flattened linear dorsal horn up to 5 mm long near base, pale yellow streaked with purple-brown.