Stapelia rufa Masson

Small succulent forming compact clump 50-500 mm diam. Stems 60-120 mm long, 10-15 mm thick, erect, shortly pubescent, green suffused with purple (not mottled); tubercles up to 2 mm long, widely spaced along stem and very obscure, obtusely conical, joined into 4 broadly obtuse angles along stem and stem ± roundly square in cross-section; leaf-rudiment 1.5-2.5 mm long. Inflorescences pubescent, 1 per stem usually near base, with 1-5(-8) flowers opening in fairly quick succession on short stout peduncle <5 mm long, with few subulate bracts 1-2 mm long; pedicel 4-8 mm long, 1.5 mm thick, spreading and holding flower facing horizontally; sepals 3-4 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm broad at base, narrowly lanceolate, acute. Corolla 30-45 mm diam., campanulate; outside greenish, with 3-5 darker veins on each lobe; inside finely transversely rugulose, yellow to pinkish or red-brown or purple-brown, sometimes paler between rugosities and in base of tube, with fine sharp-tipped papillae on rugosities in upper half of lobes and along margins where reaching 1 mm long towards base (also few in base of tube); tube ±7 mm long, 10 mm broad, longer than gynostegium, pentagonal, widening from flat base gradually towards mouth (at base of lobes), corolla thickest ± at level of outer corona lobes; lobes 15-20 mm long, 6-8 mm broad at base, ascending to spreading often with incurved tips, ovate, acuminate and often caudate, slightly convex above from recurved margins. Corona ±4 mm tall, ±4-5 mm broad, raised on obtusely pentagonal stipe 1.5-2.0 mm long, sparsely pubescent towards tips of inner lobes; outer lobes 1.0-1.5 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm broad, spreading, ± square with deltoid apex, acute to obtuse, slightly channelled above (more towards base), yellow to orange or orange-brown; inner lobes 1.5-2.0 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers in lower half then erect and sometimes slightly recurved above, dorsiventrally flattened, ± rectangular, shortly bifid to truncate, sometimes dorsally slightly swollen towards base, red-brown to black.