Stapelia pillansii flower and bud

A Stapelia pillansii flower has long corolla lobes, their tips strongly curved down, more or less out of sight in the photo. Purplish hairs rigidly restricted to the lobe margins are long and dense, directed inwards or matted in a narrow range, not much spreading outwards and not present upon the faint transverse surface wrinkles.

The dark corona lobes are conspicuous in the cup-shaped corolla tube, the inner corona lobes taller and narrower above the outer corona.

The thin bud in the background shows the length of the corolla lobes in its steepling, twisted body (White and Sloane, 1937).