Surprise in Huernia pillansii v. longii

[Acid John]

I've seen maggots in flowers before but never reaching the stage to pupate. I think that they have survived by eating the eggs that were laid later.

[Herts Mike]

That isn't pillansii John. More like keniensis.

[Colin Walker]

That isn't pillansii John. More like keniensis.

I too query the ID. First off there's no such plant as Huernia pillansii v. longii. There are H. pillansii & H. longii and it's certainly not the latter.

Turns out this isn't H. keniensis as Mike suggests. Any chance of a good photo of the plant itself please? This might help.

On a quick check of Leach's 1988 monograph of Huernia I can't readily come up with a name, so my first thought is that this is yet another hybrid.

[Colin Walker]

I've now checked John Pilbeam's Stapeliads book and there's no match there either to your plant John, so I'm now fairly certain that you've got a hybrid, which shouldn't be masquerading as a species IMHO. I suggest composting it since the plant and label really don't match and finding a match is nearly impossible since I'd guess that this plant doesn't have a cv. name either.

Alternatively you could call it Huernia 'Acid John' for instance.

[rodsmith]

Alternatively you could call it Huernia 'Acid John' for instance.

I like it.

[Rob]

I can't remember exactly what he called it, and i'm nowhere near my notebooks today, but Doug Sizmur used to sell a "red flowered H.pillansii"
Amongst my clutter I have a note from Chris Moore, telling me that it was a hybrid, I'm pretty sure he told me the other parent too.
I will look it out and see what I can find later.
Sadly I no longer have the plant, but I might have a photo somewhere.

[Herts Mike]

Btw, in my defence I didn’t say it was keniensis but like keniensis.

[Diane]

The flower looks more like H. x pendurata, but that has quite slender pendent stems…

[Acid John]

Here is a few stems. I purchased it 30+ years ago at Stafford Agricultural Show in a 1" pot it's now in a 3" pot.

[Diane]

That definitely has H. pillansii as a parent, I think, but certainly a hybrid.