Thousands of people around the world tuned in to a live broadcast of a rare cactus this week as it prepared to bloom – considered the first such event in the UK.
Now horticulturists say the event has started and will end at sunrise on Sunday.
The moon flower, which is growing in the Cambridge University Botanical Garden (CUBG), will bloom for just 12 hours before it dies. The live broadcast has been running for several days and has been viewed more than 120,000 times.
Earlier on Saturday, experts told viewers on the live stream that they thought “tonight is the night”, before updating the caption to say “wow, it’s happening!” in the afternoon. The moon flower now appears to be in full bloom.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, the flower was still a tightly rolled bud, but it unfolded throughout the day to reveal a display of white petals.
The Amazonian plant Selenicereus wittii it should bloom around 9 pm, producing a large white flower that lasted from sunset to sunrise. But in comments on the live broadcast, the team said that flowering was happening “a little earlier than expected” and that they were “very excited”.
The team said it would present a live question and answer program on Facebook from 9:30 pm until “tea time”.
The moon flower plant revolves around the tree trunks, and the coveted flower is about 3.65 meters high. This plant is believed to be the only specimen in the UK and, worldwide, is listed in only 13 botanical gardens.
The coveted flower produces a sweet scent that is “rancid” after just two hours, when the plant begins to die. The plant is only found in the high water line of the humid lowland forests of the Amazon basin, and its flowers reach 27cm in length.
However, there has been some confusion about the rarity of the flower, with members of the public claiming to have their own versions of the plant and uploading photos to the botanical gardens. The CUBG team published an article clarifying that “moon flower” was a name used for many different species of plants.
“It is likely that most people have Epiphyllum oxypetalum. A species of epiphyte cactus common in cultivation. It is not the same genus as the moon flower that we have here, which is Selenicereus wittii ”, said Alex Summer, responsible for the cultivation and cultivation of the plant at CUBG.
“Plant growers in a domestic environment will not have Selenicereus wittii, as this is extremely uncommon in cultivation and can only be found in botanical gardens or in the Amazon rainforest.”
However, the team said it “loved to receive images of its flowers from Epiphyllum oxypetalum”, sharing a selection “the impressive examples of locally grown lunar flowers sent to us by the public”.
Last week, Summer said he was “very excited to see and share this unusual flowering”.
“It is very rare to have this plant in our collection and we believe this is the first time that the moon flower has bloomed in the UK,” he said.