OMG my cactus is doing weird things!! (Large Pics)

Check this out. Thursday night my cactus outside witch is just a 5 foot green looking pole sticking out of the ground. starting growing this pod looking thing from the side. It popped out and grew to this state in just a couple of days.

I rescued the plant from being destroyed from a friends house about 2 years ago he was worried that his child might run into it playing in the back yard. It is definitely a dinosaur plant with spikes sticking out on the edges all the way up and down.

Well last evening the pod looked like it was about to burst but I did not think it would open in the night time but I checked just before I got ready for bed around 10:30 and it was wide open and the Moon was shinning right on it. Very . So I took some shots for ya all. It did not have a smell to the flower but I have to admit that the whole thing reminded me of the invasion of the body snatchers so I was not going to stick my nose right up in it at night time.aranoid3 :laughing:

Before I left this morning the flower was almost closed to a pod look again. Must not like the sun.

If anyone knows what kind of cactus or info on it please let me know.

Wow, that was very cool.

I've never seen that kind of cactus make a flower before. It is odd-looking in its bud state.

I guess since the desert is hot and dry during the day, it kind of makes sense to close it up in the morning and protect the delicate blossom. I wonder what the seeds are like?

cool protrusion. Beautiful flower

Night-Blooming Cereus
Queen of the Night ~ Deer-Horn Cactus
Peniocereus greggii
(Cereus greggii)

Description
One of the strangest plants of the desert, the Night-bloomiing Cereus is a member of the Cactus Family that resembles nothing more than a dead bush most of the year. It is rarely seen in the wild because of its inconspicuousness. But for one midsummer's night each year, its exqusitely scented flower opens as night falls, then closes forever with the first rays of the morning sun.

Range
Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of southern Arizona, east to western Texas and south to northern Mexico.

Habitat
Desert flats and washes between 3000 and 5000 feet, often in the shade of desert shrubs like Creosote.

Flowers
These very fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers, which bloom for only one night in June or July, 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 ellipitical fruit about 3 inches long.

The Night-blooming Cereus has sparse, angular, lead-gray, twiggy tems about 1/2 inch in diameter. Extremeley small spines grow along the 4 to 6 ribs of these woody stems, which can easily break. It can be erect or sprawling, reaching a length of up to 8 feet, but is usually half that length.

The Night Blooming Cereus has a tuberous, turnip-like root usually weighing 5 to 15 pounds (but in some specimens weighing over 100 pounds), which Native Americans used as a food source.

A close Baja relation (Peniocereus. johnstonii), called Saramatraca, Pitayita, or Matraca is locally popular for its edible tuber, which is said to account for the plant's scarcity there.

A Very Good Site:
www.desertusa.com

How beautiful! Weird that it only blooms once a year. You are lucky you got to see it.

Originally posted by Vader
Night-Blooming Cereus
Queen of the Night ~ Deer-Horn Cactus
Peniocereus greggii
(Cereus greggii)
A Very Good Site:
www.desertusa.com

Click to expand...

I can't thank you enough for this info and great website!!

Thanks!!

That is so pretty!

That is just beautiful!!!!!!

Thats amazing! Thats so cool that you happened to see it on the only night it blooms. Its beautiful.

Originally posted by Spooky
Thats amazing! Thats so cool that you happened to see it on the only night it blooms.

Its beautiful.

Click to expand...

Very true. Just by luck I looked before I got ready for sleep and it was opening. What lucky day.

No problem!

WOEII To quote you: but I have to admit that the whole thing reminded me of the invasion of the body snatchers so I was not going to stick my nose right up in it at night time.

That's exactly what I was thinking! I love flowers though, and there's no way I would have missed its blooming. That is a real "happening!"

Wow! That is a beautiful cactus. I wish they would grow where I live. It's too humid.

Pretty neat!! And I must say nice pictures!! I'm jealous... I can never take nice clear pictures like that.