Night Blooming Cereus

 

My night blooming cereus(s) (I have 4 or 5) had 4 blooms one night and 4 the next also. The second night I forgot to look at them and was sitting on the porch when I smelled their wonderful fragrance.This picture was made of the first night's bloom. I think this may be a nymph cricket on the bloom. These flowers cannot be open long before all sorts of critters are attracted to them, but none of the moths that pollinate them in their native habitat in South and Central America and the Caribbean. The next morning they hang limp and mushy after one night of glory.

Here is an overnight time lapsed picture series (40 sec)that shows how the flower changes through the evening.