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Back to: organism, plant, land plant, vascular plant, seed plant, flowering plant, dicot, caryophyllales, cactus.
| Night-blooming cereus (Selenicereus grandiflorus) | ||||||||||
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The plant night-blooming cereus, large-flowered cactus, queen of the night;organillo, sweet-scented cactus, vanilla cactus (latin Selenicereus grandiflorus - also named as Selenicereus kunthianus, Cereus grandiflorus, Selenicereus kunthianus, Selenicereus hallensis, Cactus grandiflorus) has 5- til 8-edges branching stem about 1/2 inch wide. It's flowers are white, up to 30 cm in size and scented like vanilla. It is sometimes said to be one of the most beautiful flowers in existence. The flowers open after sundown and close and waste after a few hours. It originally stems from the Antilles.
As an ornamental houseplant it is not easy to take care for and therefore it's the pride of every cactus enthusiast whose plant bears flowers. Selenicereus species were often crossed with species from the genus Epiphyllum to produce more durable houseplants with nice big flowers.
The plant is used in homeopathy, and is also assumed to be a aphrodisiac.
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