Bloom of 13 July 2003

At long last, our night-blooming cereus (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) came to life with a single bloom on the evening of July 13th. Never a prodigious producer, this plant had not bloomed since November, 2001. It was repotted in Spring, 2002; that seems to explain the interruption.

As on two previous occasions, this flower's bloom survived several hours past sunrise. In all three cases, I had sprinkled the flower with water during the night, for photographic purposes. Perhaps keeping the flower moist is the key.

However, this flower never opened all the way. I suspect it was the lighting I used in the photographs. I used two 100W halogen lights for these pictures, about ten times the lighting used for my other pictures. Next time, I will wait until the flower is fully opened before subjecting it to light, to see if that makes any difference.

During opening - Olympus 4040Z; greyscale	Olympus 2000Z

Olympus 4040Z; greyscale	Olympus 2000Z

Olympus 4040Z	Olympus 4040Z

Olympus 2000Z	Olympus 4040Z

Page created July, 2003, by Robert Fovell (rfovell at ucla dot edu).
Contents Copyright 2003 by Robert Fovell; please contact me for reproduction and dissemination permissions.

Return to the cereus home page