Night Blooming Cereus

The night blooming Cereus is the flower of a vine like cactus whose flowers only bloom one night per year. This particular one is growing up the trunk of a live oak tree that is covered in Spanish Moss. The photo was taken late at night under a nearly full moon with a partly cloudy sky in the background.

This really is an amazing flower that many people may have growing on their property and not even know it exists. These flowers close up at the first sign of daylight… heck, you can even shine a flashlight on them and they will start to close. If you are home before dark and leave after dawn during the week or so that the different buds bloom (each bloom lasts one night, but some buds bloom a few nights before or after the others), you would never know they exist.

This particular species is actually a Selenicereus grandiflorus, and it is also known as a Queen of the Night, orChrist in the manger.

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