Night - blooming cereus - wikipedia Night - blooming cereus This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2009 ) Hylocereus undatus Night - blooming cereus is the common name referring to a large number of flowering ceroid cacti that bloom at night. The flowers are short lived, and some of these species, such as Selenicereus grandiflorus, bloom only once a year, for a single night. Other names for one or more cacti with this habit are princess of the night, Honolulu queen ( for Hylocereus undatus ), Christ in the manger, dama de noche and queen of the night ( which is also used for an unrelated plant species ). Contents 1 Genera and species 2 Description 3 Cultivation and uses 4 See also 5 References Genera and species This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2016 ) A night - blooming cereus in full bloom While many cacti referred to as night - blooming cereus belong to the tribe Cereeae, other night - blooming cacti in the subfamily Cactoideae may also be called night - blooming cereus. Cacti which may be called by this name include : Cereus Echinopsis ( usually Echinopsis pachanoi, San Pedro cactus ) Epiphyllum ( usually Epiphyllum oxypetalum, gooseneck cactus ; grown as an indoor houseplant throughout the world, and the most popular cultivated night - blooming cereus ) Harrisia Hylocereus ( of which Hylocereus undatus is the most frequently cultivated outdoors, and is the main source of the commercial fruit crop, dragonfruit ) Monvillea Nyctocereus ( usually Nyctocereus serpentinus ) Peniocereus ( Peniocereus greggii, the best known, is strictly a desert plant which grows from an underground tuber and is infrequently cultivated ) Selenicereus ( usually Selenicereus grandiflorus ) Trichocereus Description This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2016 ) A night - blooming cereus before full bloom at Sakherbazar, Kolkata Selenicereus grandiflorus Regardless of genus or species, night - blooming cereus flowers are almost always white or very pale shades of other colors, often large, and frequently fragrant. Most of the flowers open after nightfall, and by dawn, most are in the process of wilting. Plants in the same geographical area tend to bloom on the same night. Also for healthy plants there can sometimes be as many as three separate blooming events spread out over the warmest months. The plants that bear such flowers can be tall, columnar, and sometimes extremely large and tree - like, but more frequently are thin - stemmed climbers. While some night - blooming cereus are grown indoors in homes or greenhouses in colder climates, most of these plants are too large or ungainly for this treatment, and are only found outdoors in tropical areas. Cultivation and uses The dried flowers of the night - blooming cereus ( 霸王 花 ) are a common ingredient used in Cantonese slow - simmered soup ( traditional Chinese : 老 火 湯 ; pinyin : lǎohuǒ tāng ; Jyutping : lou5 fo2 tong1 ). Some night - blooming cereus plants produce fruits which are large enough for people to consume. These include some of the members of the genus Cereus, but most commonly the fruit of the Hylocereus. Hylocereus fruit have the advantage of lacking exterior spines, in contrast to the fruit of cacti such as the Selenicereus fruit, being brightly colored, and having a pleasant taste. Since the late 1990s, Hylocereus fruit have been commercially grown and sold in tropical locations like Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Hawaii. See also Ceroid cactus Pitaya Queen of the Night References Jump up ^ Hecht, Hans ( 1997 ). Cacti & Succulents. Sterling Pub. Co. p. 76. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8069 - 0549 - 5. Jump up ^ Teresa M. Chen ( 2009 ). A Tradition of Soup : Flavors from China 's Pearl River Delta. North Atlantic Books. p. 122. ISBN 978 - 1 - 55643 - 765 - 6. Jump up ^ Daniel E. Moerman ( 2010 ). Native American Food Plants : An Ethnobotanical Dictionary. Timber Press. p. 73. ISBN 978 - 1 - 60469 - 189 - 4. Night Blooming Cereus Bud to Bloom documentation over 33 - day period Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night-blooming_cereus&oldid=820203228 '' Categories : Night - blooming plants Plant common names Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from September 2009 All articles needing additional references Articles needing additional references from September 2016 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Dansk தமிழ் Edit links This page was last edited on 13 January 2018, at 17 : 00 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: flowers that bloom only one night a year
Answer: Selenicereus grandiflorus