In my balcony here in Sydney, there lives a scraggy humble potted cactus-y plant - the very under-rated Epiphyllum oxypetalum (Bunga Bakawali, 昙花/曇花, Night Queen, निशागंधी Nishagandhi, 月下美人 Gekka Bijin), which is the eponymous flower in the chinese proverb 昙花一现, i.e. flash in a pan. This particular plant was left behind by previous tenants ages ago in a shabby state, but slow, tender loving care over the years helped it to recuperate and establish.
This plant supposedly only flowers once a year (or in my case, 3 times in the 6 years here), and when it does, the bud take 2 months to mature, and it is well known for blooming only in the wee midnight hours, opening swiftly over 4 hours, and then spectacularly wilting and dying by morning. No fruit is produced, to my knowledge, as it propagates by shoots: what an extravagant waste of the plant's resources over a year, gone in half a night, all for nothing except pleasure. Rare, fascinating and short enough for entire communities to gather at night to watch one bloom,and the subject of numerous chinese, japanese, indian and malay lore (more here).
Tonight, it bloomed again!
Massive flower spanning almost 9 inches wide and 4 inches deep, with long delicate fingers of red carmine petals radiating outward lily-like and elegant stamen and pistil drooping slightly in the centre, filling the air with a sweet, almost ethereal, scent. The edges of the red petals are lined with an intense purple hue made only visible under ultraviolet light (shows up as a strange shade of fuchsia in the photos, due to cold-white LED lighting). Usually 昙花 produces white, slightly pink flowers, but my plant makes em red!
Anyhoo, share my joy! =)
