A rare Amazonian cactus called the moonflower has bloomed for what botanists believe is the first time in the UK.
Experts at the University of Cambridge’s Botanical Garden kept a night watch throughout the week so they did not miss the flower of Selenicereus wittii – an event that usually starts at sunset and ends at sunrise.
The moonflower actually bloomed earlier Saturday afternoon around 3 p.m., and the garden said it was 28 cm (11 inches) long.
The coveted flower produces a fragrant scent that becomes “rancid” after only two hours when the plant begins to die. The plant is found only on the high waterline of the floodplain rainforests of the Amazon basin.
A post on the garden’s Instagram feed says: ‘Oh, it was worth the wait, what a beauty! Our moonflower has opened and the smell is divine – similar to gardenia and jasmine atm and it will later (we think) smell in rotten vegetables. ”
The plant spirals around tree trunks and the coveted flower is about 3.6 meters in the air. This plant is probably the only specimen in the UK and worldwide it is listed in only 13 botanical gardens.
Alex Summers, supervisor for the greenhouse at the botanical garden, said he was “excited” to share the bloom of the cactus, which is streamed live online.
“It is very rare for this plant to be in our collection, and we believe it is the first time the moon flower has bloomed in the UK,” he said.
‘I noticed that the flattened stems, or cushions, that wrap around the trunk of our water chestnut, sent a flower bud late in late November. It was a happy place, because it is almost 12 meters in the air and could be so easily missed. ‘
He said it had only recently “increased radically”, indicating that flowering was imminent.
He added that he liked the story of how British botanical artist Margaret Mee brought the plant to the attention of a larger audience.
She first saw the moon flower in 1964, but had to wait until 1988 to see one in bloom.
Her painting is kept by Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, south-west London. Summers said the cactus is expected to flower for most years to come.
Thousands of people around the world agreed this week on a live stream of the rare cactus. The plant is expected to flower around 9 p.m.
But in comments on the live stream, the team said the bloom was “a little earlier than expected”, and that they were “so excited”. After that, they submitted a live question and answer on Facebook scheduled for 9:30 p.m.
There was confusion about the rarity of the flower, and members of the public allegedly claimed to have their own versions of the plant and sent photos to the botanical gardens.
The CUBG team has published an article in which he explains that ‘moon flower’ is a name used for many different plant species.