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The flower of the Queen of the Night cactus (Hylocereus undatus). Help
The flower of the Queen of the Night cactus (Hylocereus undatus).
A night-blooming
exotic amazes
Evatt partygoers
GARDENERS'
GALLERY
THE MOTHER of a reader from Evatt
fell for an epiphytic cactus in Malay
sia where it was called kengwah and
parties were held in its honour.
From Perth, her plant took up resi
dence in Canberra where it amazes New
Year's Eve parlygoers on her son's
veranda at midnight.
These dinner-plate flowers, some
times five, six or 15 of them, open in one
night, have multiple petals like a water
lily and their perfume becomes stronger
as the night wears on. By morning the
funnel-shaped blooms "look like rubber
chickens".
During winter the plant is brought in
doors and this year it turned into a trif
fid, with six ugly long thin stems topped
with flat leaves.
Believing the cactus to be moth-polli
nated, "though no Canberra moth would
know what to do with something so exot
ic", the grower has dabbled around with
a paintbrush on cream stamens, "to no
avail", he said.
Tracked down in Brian Lamb's new/1
Guide to Cacti of the World (Collins
Angus & Robertson. 215pp. $45) it is the
true Queen of the Night (Hylocereus un
datus), a clambering forest cereus with
fresh green stems and aerial roots, native
to the Caribbean and tropical South
America.
Talk of such moon flowers led to Ipo
mea alba, with its fragrant white saucer
blooms and wild blue Morning Glory, a
South Coast symbol of summer by the
sea.
In the Fairchild Tropical Gardens,
Florida, USA, Mrs Alwin Jennings was
known for her dinner-party floral ar
rangements using pods of the shaving
brush tree (Pseudobombax ellipticum).
After dusk they would pop open to reveal
red and cream silken kapok flowers.
We all know that the plant kingdom is
mysterious, but the authors of The
Strangest Plants in the World (Hill of
Content. 166pp. $24.95 paperback) cov
er 100 plants used in black magic, human
sacrifice, bizarre desert plants and crooks
and curiosities.
Professor Stanislaw Talalaj studied at
Warsaw Medical Academy, specialised
in medicinal plants at London Universi
ty and is a consultant to the South Aus
tralian Health Commission. His wife,
Daniela, and son, Janusz, worked in bot
any at the University of Nairobi and
took part in plant-collecting expeditions
in tropical Africa and. the Middle East.
Their tales, incredible but true, range
from potent Australian pituri trees to
toxic oleander and hallucinogenic nut
meg. All species are illustrated.
The authors point to the creation of a
national reserve for the giant Rafflesia
and a forest reserve for the cedar of
Lebanon and hope readers will support
campaigns for habitat preservation of the
world's rarest plants detailed in the text.
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