Quote:
Originally Posted by Ross
The only "Night Blooming" cacti I know are Selenicereus and Hylocereus. I have seen the term "Night Blooming Cereus" but always doubted the term. The most common one in cultivation is Hylocereus undatus. I have collected chunks from Florida :blushing: and they grew like gang-busters.
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Ross,
The "night-blooming Cereus" is Peniocereus greggii. It does bloom only at night, and each plant only blooms for ONE night. Regardless of how many blooms it might have, they all come out on
ONE night. Sometimes if there are several plants in proximity, they synchronize bloom, so that ALL bloom on the same night . . . then that's it for the year. I'm not sure if it's moths or bats (or both) that pollinate them, but it's amazing they ever DO get pollinated with odd habits like that.
They are semi-common in desert areas around here, but the plants look like a dead stick (plenty of
that around in the desert), and often grow under a tree or bush, eventually climbing into it for support. They are so innocous you will almost never see one, even if you are
looking. I've spotted exactly
one "in the wild" exactly
once in hundreds of miles of hiking over the years. They develop an underground tuber that can get to football size and larger, so they can go totally without water for long, long periods (handy in the desert).
I have a couple in my yard (they are readily available at garden centers in Tucson), but I've only seen the bloom there once. The bloom is about teacup size. I don't think they have a scent, but my sniffer is so bad I can't really detect anything subtle. They bloom in May, and it seems I'm always away when it happens.
Some pictures (
not taken by me). You can see how the plant is so hard to spot in it's natural surroundings.
Night...err...Day Blooming Cereus
and they grew like gang-busters.
..I guess you can call it a day blooming cereus. 
How's the fragrance?
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