Night-blooming Cereus o'clock!

One of my favorite things about living in Orlando are all of the little discoveries you can make when you take the time to push aside the flashy theme parks and really look under all the local rocks. Or up in the trees.

There’s a species of night-blooming cactus here that calls out my name once a year, just as the summer rains return and humidity is spiking, and the evening turns into a sweet, sticky, warm mess of a party. The night-blooming cereus blooms are about the size of my giant head and they only last until the morning before they shrivel up and fall off the stem.

Some die-hard cactus fans here in town will bike between a number of remarkable specimens all in one night and make a treasure hunt out of it. I’m lucky enough to have a really healthy colony in my backyard though.

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