Queen of the Night

Appearance

Stems scandent, clambering or sprawling, branching, sometimes forming tangles, producing aerial roots, stiff, to 10m long or more, 15-25mm thick; ribs 7-8, low, less so on older branches, separated by broad, rounded intervals, slightly wavy to strongly knobby; areoles small, wool white or greyish white, internodes 12-20mm; spines 5-18, to 4,5-12mm, basally ca 0,25mm in Ø, acicular, elliptic or circular in cross section, bulbous basally, spreading, yellowish brown to brownish or yellow, grey in age, eventually deciduous hairs from lower part of areole ± numerous white or brownish, mature vegetative areoles usually lacking hairs, juveline plants have spines shorter and fewer; epidermis glaucous green or bluish green, often ± purplish, smooth. Flowers 17-22,5 cm long, fragrant reminding or vanilla and orange-flower; pericarpel 25mm long, with bracteoles 5mm, strap-shaped and yellowish, covered with nearly white or tawny hairs and sharp bristles; receptacle 7,5-8,7 cm, bracteoles 5-14mm, strap-shaped to linear, yellowish with long, nearly white or tawny, wavy hairs and sharp bristles in their axils, ca 25mm long; outer tepals 7,5–10 cm long, averaging 4,5mm wide, linear-attenuate, light brown, salmon to pink buff, yellowish adaxially; inner tepals 7,5–10 cm long, 9- 12mm, shorter than outer tepals, wide, lanceolate, gradually narrowed into a pointed or acute apex, white; stamens 38-50mm long, delinate, white, anthers 1,5mm long, yellowish; style 15–20 cm long, often longer than inner tepals, 1,5mm greatest Ø, stigma lobes 7-12, ca 7,5mm long, slender. Fruit ovoid, 5–9 cm long, 4,5–7 cm thick, whitish, partly pink, pink, yellow or orange, covered with clusters of spines and hairs which soon drop off, juicy, the imbilicus small and inconspicuous.
Four subspecies are recognized:
⤷ *ssp. ''donkelaarii'' Ralf Bauer
⤷ *ssp. ''grandiflorus''
⤷ *ssp. ''hondurensis'' Ralf Bauer
⤷ *ssp. ''lautneri'' Ralf Bauer

Naming

*Afrikaans: Koningin van die Nag
⤷ Chinese：Shé Bian Zhu
⤷ Danish: Nattens Dronning
⤷ Dutch: Koningin van de Nacht
⤷ English: Queen of the Night, Night-blooming Cereus, Large-flowering Cactus, Sweet-scented Cactus, Vanilla Cactus, Lunar Flower, Large Blooming Cereus, Large flowered torch thistle, Large-flowered Night Cactus
⤷ Estonian: Öökuninganna
⤷ Finnish: Yönkuningatar
⤷ French: reine de la nuit, princesse de la nuit, cierge à grande fleurs, vierge à grandes fleurs, cierge rampant à grandes fleurs, fleur d'amour
⤷ German: Königin der Nacht, Schlangencereus, Schlangenkaktus
⤷ Italian: cacto grandifloro, regina della notte
⤷ Japanese: Gekka Bijin
⤷ Malayalam: Nisha Ghanthi. This name is also used for Epiphyllum oxypetalum.
⤷ Portuguese: flor-de-baile, cardeiro trepador
⤷ Punjabi: Raat di sassi
⤷ Română: Cactus din Antilele Olandeze
⤷ Русский: Царица ночи
⤷ Sinhala: Kadupul
⤷ Spanish: Reina de las Flores, Reina Gigante, Cardon, Gigante, Organillo, Reina de la noche.
⤷ Swedish: nattens drottning
⤷ Tamil/Telugu : Brahma Kamalam
⤷ Kannada: Brahma Kamala
⤷ Arabic: Laylat al-Qadr Al-Qadr 'The Night of Power' referring to a holy event in IslamGrandiflorus = large flowered. When Carl von Linné descripted this cacti in 1753 it was the largest flowered species of cacti known. Paradoxically, are moderate in size compared with several other ''Selenicereus'' species.

Habitat

Greater Antilles , Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and a few other locations in South and Central America. Climbing on trees and on rocks. 700m alt. Extremely variable, especially in Jamaica, stems with slightly wavy to strongly knobby margins occurs in the same plant. Much confused in cultivation. Many species of ''Selenicereus'' should be reduced to synonyms of subspecies of this species, differing merely in degree rather than in kind.

Evolution

The first species to be brought into cultivation. Linné descripted it in 1753, but it was known long before. Records from Hortus Kewensis gives that the species was grown at Royal Gardens at Hampton Court before 1700. There has been doubt about which plant was available to Linné when he drew up his description, but this is solved and both the plates on this side show the authentic species.