Photoblog 2.0

Ferraria Crispa, photo by Harold Davis. View this photograph larger.

I photographed this flower the other day in the South Africa section of the U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden.

It is a ferraria crispa, a member of the Iris genus. As Solitaire on Flickr put it, “leopard skin bloom, and it’s a ferrari? I want one!”

Turns out that this is a rare flower whose bloom only lasts for a day. According to the information on the website of the Fernkloof Nature Reserve near Capetown, the flower also smells of carion.

I didn’t smell anything. But it just goes to show: is that leopard-skinned Ferrari really worth it if it smells of dead meat?

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