Image of the month (July 2007)

Queen of the night arrives in Tucson!

This is a photograph of the night-blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii) that I captured on June 20th, 2007.

What is so special about this cactus? Well, this plant blooms only once every year and it does so only in the night!! For remaining 364 days, this Cereus is a rather ordinary-looking cactus (Image 6 below, see if you agree with me) in the Sonoran desert. But on the night it blooms, she is the queen of the night. Another aspect that makes this blooming event a significant one is that this plant has just one night to attract pollinators and produce seeds for the next season (see this interesting work on this aspect) . Night-blooming cereus flowers are not self-fertile and depend on Sphingidae moths–hawk moths (Manduca quinquemaculata) or Sphinx moths (Hyles lineata) for successful cross pollination and seed production. Each plant produces any where between 1-7 flowers/plant (however, all of them will flower on the same day).

While driving from work on June 20th, I heard on NPR that nearly 78 plants in the Thono Chul Park will all bloom that night. I later learned that " Tohono Chul Park has the largest public collection of the magical cactus on its grounds and, since 1992, has hosted free “Bloom Nights” when the public is invited to view the enchanting flowers while their delicate petals unfold". So we (along with my wife and two daughters) went to the park at 9pm and we had a night to remember.

There were nearly 2000 people treking along candle-lit paths to get a glimpse of the awesome beauty of these flowers (some of the photos we took are below). Some professionals set up tripods to image the beauty, while others simply took out their cell phones to soak it all in (Image 1 below). Some visitors, like us, came without a flash light and they benefited from the photography professionals who lit up these plants with lights (Image 3 below; hopefully they did not scare the moths away!). An artist camped besides one of these plants to sketch it all out (Image 4 below). I still get goose bumps recollecting that magical night.

I am glad I was there when the queen arrived. Enjoy!!

(This is how this cactus looks without any flowers)

(Plant in the foreground flowered one day before and all is

left is a drooped down remnants of yesterday's beauty).

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