Arizona Night-Blooming Cereus Cacti

Night-Blooming Cereus
Queen of the Night

 Peniocereus greggii / Cereus greggii

 

I woke this morning to a beautiful site just right outside my kitchen window. A Night-Blooming Cereus  that is protected at the base of a large Ocotillo in the front yard was blooming in the first rays of morning. I knew I didn't have much time before the blossom closes with rise of the sun so I ran outside to snap some photographs.  These bazar cacti are found in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of southern Arizona, east to western Texas and south to northern Mexico. Most of the people that reside here don't even know of their existence until they bloom. The rest of the year they look like sticks.

These very fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers, which bloom for only one night in June or July, following the blossom is a huge red seed pod. The Night Blooming Cereus has a tuberous, turnip-like root usually weighing 5 to 15 pounds which Native Americans used as a food source. They are protected in many areas.