Queen of the night Selenicereus grandiflorus.

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This is an unusual plant nicknamed Queen of the Night. The blossoms are quite large, green tip to green tip is about 9 inches. The Queen of the Night is a climbing succulent that blooms only in a dark location, only at night. It’s exciting to be able to share these photos, because the flowers are not often seen, especially in Manila. The flowers are fragrant.

This must be the thorny vine which is actually cacti that maleficent produced to prevent the prince from getting to sleeping beauty.

Selenicereus grandiflorus, is amongst the most striking and has enormous flowers to say the least.

 Selenicereus as a genus is distributed from southern USA through Central America, the West Indies, and Northern South America. This species, Selenicereus grandiflorus hails from Cuba. Members of this genus are all climbers or trailers (plants in my own collection trail almost 2 meters). The genus derives its name from the Greek selene (moon) which is in reference to their night flowering habit. Stems are elongated, ribbed or angled, and in nature climb or clamber amongst other plants.

In its natural habitat, bats pollinate Selenicereus, hence the night flowering habit. I suspect that the sheer size of the flowers is also associated with the relationship with bats. Pollination is another fascinating aspect of the life of plants.

A flower that blooms once every other year for a few hours and only at night during a full moon, more occasionally, a new moon. How is flowering in such plants triggered by the lunar cycle?.

The queen of the night is available in Philippine garden nurseries.

The flowers are very fragrant. Very rare and exotic indeed. You can get these from Makulay.