Matelea cyclophylla is flowering

[Hans J]

In this days is my Matelea cyclophylla flowering in my green house
Pictures from today :

Have fun
Hans 

[Véronique Macrelle]

it's magnificent Hans! is it an Asclepiadaceae?


From this family, I have already managed to force self-pollination on the genus Stapelia and Orbea. The pollinia are hidden under the crown, which is very difficult to remove as you practically have to break off one of the pieces around the crown.

on the other hand, once fertilised, the flower fades more quickly... perhaps try it when you see that the flower is coming to the end.

[Véronique Macrelle]

does the flower smell?

[Hans J]

Hello Véronique ,

Yes ...it is a Asclepiadaceae

I know that many members of this family makes difficults with producing seeds ...so I hope
In my garden I have more like Asclepias ,Tweedia ,Gillesia ,Vincetoxicum ...some makes easy seeds .
We will see ....

Thank you for your interest 
Hans

[Hans J]

does the flower smell?

To your question :
Some plantfriends from other forum told me it smells not so well ...but my nose can nothing smell !

[Jeffnz]

If it is pollinated by flies then it will not have a pleasant odour, some smell like rotting meat.

[Hans J]

Good news about my Matelea plants (4 )

I saw a fruit on 13.09.2025 !!!!

My hope was that some insect would take pity and pollinate one of the many flowers...and it worked!

Maybe there are more fruits – but you can't see everything in this jungle.

Now I'm curious to see when this fruit will be ripe, because autumn is coming... eventually it will get too cold in the greenhouse and I'll have to move the plants indoors.

[Hans J]

Quick update:

Yesterday, I brought my Matelea plants indoors because the night-time temperatures were quite cool

(6°C).

The first fruit has grown well in the meantime (12 cm).

I have now found a second fruit on another plant (4.5 cm).

I'm delighted that it worked out.

[Vinny 123]

My first finding of this thread.

That does a very passable imitation of Edithcolea. Very nice.

Hand pollination of Ascleps is reasonably easy - to get access you can (carefully) cut away structures that impede you, but transfer of pollinia is usually easy.

As to the comments about unpleasant smell/fly pollinators/Ascleps - many Ascelp flowers are odourless to us humans, not least most? all? Huernia, but still get pollinated.

[Hans J]

Hi Vinny ,

Glad that you like Matelea !
It is not so easy with pollination ...I have contacted some growers of this plants what I can do.
There was some specialists for Asclepidacae...they told me without a microscope and a big knowledge is it near impossibly ....
So my hope was that the right insects find this flowers and make her work
I know from a contact who also lives like me in the river Rhine valley ( around 70 km from here ) that he has every year fruits on his Matelea ..I know also from other parts of Germany who grow this plants that they never had ( over years ) any fruits ...so I'm lucky !

Are here on this forum any other growers of Matelea cyclophylla ?
Or are here maybe any growers of other Matelea species ( this plants grows in north and south America )
I would really swap seeds because they are very difficult to get here in Germany !
( I think some seeds in a envelope is no problem because custom)

All the best
Hans

[Vinny 123]

Hi Hans
I have grown numerous Ascleps in the past, probably even Metelea
i have to say that I have never tried it - change of plants/personal circumstances, but I was assured by an Asclep enthusiast that pollination was easy. It was a while ago, but a x10 lens is very cheap through Amazon.

For sure, I had previously found it very easy to collect pollinia (on a cocktail stick) from any Asclep that I tried, but in a flower it is difficult to find where it should be transferred to - he assured me that it works perfectly OK if you carefully cut-away the flower parts to find the right spot.

You do need to understand the flower structure before trying, but worth a try on at least one flower.