About twenty years ago, an elderly woman gave me three pieces of a plant leaf.
I placed them into the soil and one of them took root.
Before long another leaf grew out from the edge of the first leaf.
In such a manner it grew larger and larger. Two or three years later, in mid July, it finally got a large, ugly bud.
The bud started to open in the evening and fully flowered after dark.
It was pearly white, as large as my head, and had sweet but very intense fragrant.
It gave off the scent all the night and at the dawn the flower died.
This plant is called a queen of the night (Epiphyllum oxypetalum, or Dutchman’s pipe cuctus). Because they flower at night, they have to give off strong fragrant to attract some animals (bats or insects) from the distance to carry its pollen.
My plant had flower almost every year. Sometimes it had more than one flower in a year.
In Japan some plant enthusiasts grow this plant.
Some botanical gardens have this plant, however the guests cannot see the flower because it blooms after closing time.
