I cannot tell you what an exciting week I have had! I posted this time-lapse video of my Epiphyllum oxypetalum and now it has over 3.3 million views! I’m amazed! But the Queen of the Night flower is mysterious and interesting.
View this post on Instagram
My Plants’ Origins
I received my plant from a friend at my church who was retiring and moving out of state. After talking to Carol yesterday I found out they moved in 2014. I didn’t realize I’d had it that long. It bloomed for me a couple of years ago when I moved it into more light. Carol had it in a west window and it did bloom for her. She called it the “ugly plant” that bloomed and has this framed picture of the flower in her Tennessee home. For more information on how to cultivate this plant see my earlier blog post.
Here is the picture Carol has in her home
Comments
The comments on my Instagram account have come from around the world. Some are interesting, so I thought I would share some. Here is a blog post that has many facts about the plant, though you will need to translate it to English. It claims the plant has health benefits and mystical properties. You can read all that in the post.
Queen of the Night
Meanwhile, here is some of the information I received from my post.
Someone told me it is the main note in the Dior perfume Addict. I didn’t find evidence of this, but I have no idea what goes into making a perfume. Does anyone know that for sure?
I was told that snakes like to hang out in these plants so I am glad mine is in the house, not outside. I like snakes but don’t want to be surprised by one in my plant.
Movies it Has Been Represented In
Is it the flower from the movie Dennis the Menace? Yes, it is. Poor Mr. Wilson! After watching the clip, you can see it looks nothing like the real flower, but it is meant to be a representation. A few people said it reminds them of the alien in the movie Nope, but I haven’t seen it yet. Have you? I remember it being mentioned in the Elvis movie, ‘Blue Hawaii’ my favorite Elvis movie (my mom LOVED Elvis). While being interviewed for a tour guide position, Mr. Chapman asks him where he could find the night-blooming cereus on the island. (Not a cereus anymore, but epiphyllum.) He said he would take them to the Punahou School. If you’ve never watched the movie, Mr. Chapman’s office with fish pond and houseplants is amazing!
Different Countries
In Indonesia, the name is Wijaya Kusuma (Wijaya means ‘victory’ and Kusuma ‘flower’) and is a weapon of Lord Krishna. This was also said to mean mystical flower by a commenter. Lord Krishna was a character in Indonesia’s Wayang kulit, a form of puppet shadow play. In his hand, the flower brings people to life who are in a near-death state.
Other names included Cradle of Moses, Christ in the Manger, and Dutchman’s Pipe.
I can see how the Biblical connotations came about as there is a large center with the stamens and pistil cradled inside.
In Sri Lanka, it is called Kadapul Mal or ‘Flower from Heaven.’ In Japan it is called Gekka Bijn or ‘Beauty Under the Moon’. In India, it is called Brahma kamal known as the creator of the universe and thought to hold this flower
From Germany the comment ‘Traumhaft’ or fantastic in English. From France, the comment Bonne feta means ‘have a good party’ which is why one comment was translated as Happy Birthday. Some people do have parties to watch it open with friends. Someone’s grandma always called it ‘Flor de baile’ (Spanish) or dancing flower. From Puerto Rico and Venezuela “Dama de la Noche” or Lady of the night. I also got “Galan de Noche or handsome man of the night. Also Cabellero or ‘Knight’ of the night. In Trinidad, it is called Cinderella. Makes sense as things are happening at midnight for her and the flower.
Health Benefits?
It is also said to have health benefits including helping with sore throats, coughs, shortness of breath, wound healing, and curing boils. I don’t recommend using it for anything other than a beautiful houseplant.
Queen of the Night
Poem
This poem was written by Robert Hayden, who was born in Detroit, Michigan.
The Night-Blooming Cereus
And so for nights
we waited, hoping to see
the heavy bud
break into flower.
On its neck-like tube
hooking down from the edge
of the leaf-branch
nearly to the floor,
the bud packed
tight with its miracle swayed
stiffly on breaths
of air, moved
as though impelled
by stirrings within itself.
It repelled as much
as it fascinated me
sometimes–snake,
eyeless bird head,
beak that would gape
with grotesque life-squawk.
But you, my dear,
conceded less to the bizarre
than to the imminence
of bloom. Yet we agreed
we ought
to celebrate the blossom,
paint ourselves, dance
in honor of
archaic mysteries
when it appeared. Meanwhile
we waited, aware
of rigorous design.
Backster’s
polygraph, I thought,
would have shown
(as clearly as it had
a philodendron’s
fear) tribal sentience
in the cactus, focused
energy of will.
The belling of
tropic perfume–that
signaling
not meant for us;
the darkness
cloying with summoning
fragrance. We dropped
trivial tasks
and marveling
beheld at last the achieved
flower. Its moonlight
petals were
still unfold-
ing, the spike fringe of the outer
perianth recessing
as we watched.
Lunar presence,
foredoomed, already dying,
it charged the room
with plangency
older than human
cries, ancient as prayers
invoking Osiris, Krishna,
Tezcatlipoca.
We spoke
in whispers when
we spoke
at all . . .
Look at that beautiful flower
All of the comments on my Instagram post were so interesting, and it is obvious this flower has been a large part of many countries’ histories and folklore. The fact that so many people have seen the time-lapse and taken the time to comment is incredible to me. Do you have one of these plants? Has it bloomed for you?
Have a great week, plant friends!
When I worked in the greenhouses at GW, (1998-2008),an elderly gentleman came in and said he’d heard we had a night blooming cereus. I took him back to greenhouse 3 to show him the plant, and invited him to come back later that night in order to see it in bloom.
He did, and he smelled it before he saw it. His eyes were teary as he reminisced about being a WW2 veteran and this scent taking him back to the cliffs in Hawaii where they grew. He said the servicemen would take their girlfriends for midnight picnics along these cliffs to enjoy the intoxicating fragrance when it was in bloom. It was an event he’d never forget. He also said he was a “boiler boy” at GW, feeding wood and coal into the boilers to heat the greenhouses during the Depression when he was a kid. I’ll never forget him and how that fragrance transported him back to another time. What a powerful plant and memory that he shared.