Summers are never dull in the Sonoran Desert, with the stream of late night bloomers that might greet guests along the trails at Desert Botanical Garden. These cactus species are a spectacle to witness. Their flowers begin to unfold late in the evening and stay open early the next day. Check out some of those cactus species you might encounter in bloom on your next visit to the Garden.
Arizona Queen of the Night (Peniocereuse greggii var. greggii)
The plant is a tuberous rooted cactus with white, nocturnal and fragrant flowers. The Queen of the Night typically blooms en masse and once a year in June or July, opening their flowers at night and closing early the next morning.
Witnessing the Queen’s flowers is somewhat of a fairy tale. Last June, the Garden captured a time lapse of two flowers ready to bloom in the Garden’s shade house. This particular Queen of the Night (Peniocereus greggii var. transmontanus) is a subspecies.
Check out the Garden’s time lapse, one of our first videos capturing how desert plants bloom.
Argentine giant (Echinopsis candicans)
These beauties are native to South America and are known for their beautiful flowers that bloom overnight and stay open until midday the next day
Arizona’s state flower also blooms at night! Peak blooming occurs between mid-May and mid-June and smell of overripe melon.
Apple Cactus (Cereus repandus)
In the Sybil B. Harrington Cactus Gallery, check out Cereus repandus, also known as the apple cactus. It is a tree-like, branching cactus which can grow up to 40-feet tall and 15-feet wide. From late spring to early fall, bold red-tipped white flowers bloom during the night. Its fruits are used for food, and its wood for furniture, living fences or used in carbon farming.
The toothpick cactus, stetsonia coryne, is native to the deserts of Argentina and Bolivia.
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