Huernia is a genus of 64 species of succulent plants belonging to the Apocynaceae family found in Southern and Eastern Africa and Arabia. They are known collectively as carrion flowers together with some other related genus’s such as Stapelia, Orbea and Piaranthus to name but a few. This is due to the smell of carrion which the flowers emit, varying form species to species, in order to attract flies for pollination. The attractive flowers can be red, yellow, brown in colour, often in a spotted or mottled pattern with 5 often fused petals.

Huernia aspera is a small succulent species of Huernia found growing naturally in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. The dark purple, bell-shaped flowers, give of a foetid odour to attract flies for pollination. The sparsely branched creeping stems are up to 20 cm tall and 1.5cm wide.