Ithaca College

 In the CNS greenhouse, a strange cactus called a night-blooming cereus is blooming this week.  Although the full bloom lasts just a few hours after dark, visitors are welcome to stop by during regular hours to see these spectacular emerging flowers.

Epiphyllum oxypetalum, the night blooming cereus, naturally is found in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of southern Arizona, east to western Texas and south to northern Mexico. This plant is rarely seen in the wild due to its dwindling numbers due to people eating the tubers, as well as its inconspicuousness. During midsummer it produces an exquisitely scented flower that only lasts until sunrise the next morning. These very fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers are up to 4 inches wide and as much as 8 inches long. The waxy, creamy-white, many-petaled flowers are followed by a red-orange, short-spined elliptical fruit about three inches long.  The cereus in the greenhouse has numerous blooms that will develop over the next week or so, so take a few minutes to come check out the beauty of nature!