November - night flowers

[Darren S]

I have a thing for plants that flower at night. Including those that open late in the afternoon and stay open past dusk. A number of cacti and mesembs at least flower at night, and I'd be interested to see what else pops up here.

Also counting things that can stay open during the day if they are pollinated at night and emit their scent then.

Kicking off with Conophytum angelicae ssp tetragonum

[el48tel]

Do you specify "recently" or not in the rubric?

[Darren S]

Recent or not is unimportant

[bobblackbird]

A Echinopsis Eriesii

[edds]

Setiechinopsis mirabilis

[juster]

A Trichocereus, taken a couple of years ago

[WoBo]

Congratulations to Mike (and Darren, of course!) on choosing the same picture as me as the winning photo ...

Again, I could 'recycle' some of my last month's entries: In fact, both Prepodesma and Chasmatophyllum start opening their flowers not before afternoon. However, for the sake of variety I've selected some other pictures ...

... however, I'll start with a Mesemb, again: This Hereroa spec. does not keep to its family name either, as its flowers only start to open in the late afternoon. The picture has been taken in the evening sun at 20:43 (and 49 seconds; what would we do without digital photography ... ).

Deep in the night, I illuminated these flowers of Sansevieria cylindrica by an LED flashlight. So sad that fragrance cannot be captured by photography!

Finally I enclose another Echinopsis (including related genera), like some of you already did. In this case it is Echinopsis ancistrophora P60a (once called Echinopsis polyancistra). The photo has been taken early in the morning. There are not too many cactus flowers to be portrayed in the fascinating light of the morning sun!

Best regards
Wolfgang

[Ali Baba]

Peniocereus greggii. A properly nocturnal flower, they open around midnight and last until just after dawn. This was grown from seed and took about 20 years to start flowering.

[Darren S]

The winner is Ali Baba's Peniocereus. Incidentally - my own plant, bought as a 5cm tall specimen, has barely grown at all in three years! So am envious.

[Ali Baba]

Thanks Darren, that’s kind !
They need surprisingly large pots, and very generous watering to grow well. They are also very easily damaged by thrips which stop them growing so look out for them !