Duvalia

The name of this genus was chosen in honor of Henri Auguste Duval, famous French botanist who thoroughly studied the family of the Asclepiadaceae. It is a type of succulent that includes about 15 species, initially attributed to Stapelie and Huernie for their great similarity. Only a long time later a separate genus was devised that diversifies mainly by the shape of the flower characterized by much thinner petals (in some almost filiform species). The exemplars of Duvalia come from the desert areas of southern Africa and tend to develop spontaneously in the wild in the shade of shrubs, keeping slender and serrated stems that do not reach large size but grow rather prostrate on the ground and rooting quickly, to give rise to a sort of tangle upholstery extremely peculiar and ornamental. Great lovers of sunlight, from which they derive considerable benefits, its stems are greenish-blue but tend quickly, when abundantly illuminated, to tinge with reddish and purple notes typical of the entire family. To make this succulent even more showy undoubtedly contribute the inflorescences, in fact, at the base of the stems develop gigantic flowers in the shape of a five-pointed star with pleasant violet-burgundy, adorned with dots or streaks and an extremely original three-dimensional central ring: they are so peculiar and detailed as to look like a real sculptural work!