Night Blooming Cereus Plant: Blooms on a Summer Night

The Night Blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii) plant only blooms one night every year between May and August. The bloom is white in color and has a sweet aroma that attracts Sphinx moths, who in turn pollinate the plant. To see one (or even more) is a beautiful experience, especially when viewed under moonlight.

Every year in Tucson, AZ, the Tohono Chul Park hosts a Bloom night when the most blooms are ready to bloom that night. It is kind of exciting in that you never know when it might occur until you know for certain the day of. They keep a Bloom Watch page updated to check daily during bloom season to find out the day bloom night will occur. The page can be found at http://tohonochulpark.org/bloomwatch.html. On Bloom Night the park reopens at 6pm and remains open until midnight. Best of all it is free, but if you can spare a couple bucks please do toss them into the donation box right after the entrance.

This year, 2007, bloom night occurred on June 19th. It was the first time I knew about the event and even though we could not go at 6pm when it started we were not going to wait until next year. We got to the park around 9:45pm and I think in the end it worked to our advantage. People were parked all along the surrounding streets, which must have meant the parking lot was full earlier in the evening, but we easily found a spot in the parking lot that was beginning to empty. There were still quite a few people inside the park and I am glad we missed the earlier crowds.

The first bloom we saw was right up the walkway after entering the park. Many people were around it trying to photograph it. I finally got close to it and got a few pictures of the solo bloom.

We then headed down the dirt trails following the luminaries that lighted to paths. After a while passing several ones not in bloom we found a large group of people huddled around another in bloom. This particular one was spectacular. It had five blooms on it. With the help of some flashlights (strongly recommended for lighting paths and getting better pictures than using flash) I got a few photos of it. This turned out to be the one with the most blooms.

Despite seeing the one with five already, we still continued to explore the paths and came on several more that were farther away from the entrance. There were no five bloom ones, but several with two or three. The best part about these farther away ones were that you did not have to wait your turn to get in close for a photo, as there were fewer (and sometimes no) other people.

After we finished the paths we headed back towards the exit. On our way out we discovered that the giant cereus was now starting to bloom (it now being almost 11pm), which has been entirely closed blossoms when we had arrived. This one has reddish white flowers. They are also quite spectacular to see. Unfortunately, you cannot get as close to them as you can the other and the flashlights did not light it up enough. I did get some photos, but I had to resort to flash, which I really do not enjoy doing. Next year I hope it also blooms on bloom night and I can get it with a tripod. The little ones are easy to get without a tripod, although a tripod may still have been nice for them.