Night-blooming Cereus

The gardener in our public garden told my wife yesterday that she had intentionally placed a pot of Night-blooming cereus (曇花) at the most noticeable spot along the corridor so that more people could see it. According to her experience, the flowers would bloom in these few days.

I am happy to see this old friend once more because I witnessed the blooming of such white flowers at home many years ago. This kind of flowers does not give out the kind of sweet fragrance I like. From my observation, the flowers rarely bloom. If they do, they open for just one to two hours after mid-night and soon they drooped.

Let us read what Wikipedia describes about these short-life flowers:

The Night-blooming Cereus is often called Queen of the night and also known as the lunar flower, moon flower and luna flower. This plant is native to the Sonoran Desert in North America. The plant grows as a thin, almost dead looking stick from a single stem in the ground. They bloom just on one or two nights of the year, typically around May 30. Beneath the ground is a large tuber, often the size of a watermelon. It was eaten by Indians and early settlers because of its nutritious content. Pack rats often eat these blossoms before morning, so catching a glimpse of them can be fleeting (曇花一現) . They often stay open until the early morning hours, but then close up for another year.