Painting of the Moon Cactus Selenicereus grandiflora from the early 1800's book The Temple of Flora by Robert John Thornton

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“It has the appellation also of Night-blowing Cereus, from its opening its beautiful flowers after sun-set. Others have styled it the Torch Thistle, from the armature about its pentangular, articulated, and climbing stem, which is leafless, succulent, and exhibits to the observer a figure equally grotesque as terrific, with flowers possessing actually the blazing appearance of a torch. I have sometimes seen in our hot-houses twenty or thirty of these flowers expanded in the same evening, emitting all the while a fine balsamic odour - Temple of Nature-Robert John Thornton-1807

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Size: 4929px × 6196px
Location: Jamaica or Cuba
Photo credit: © steeve. e. flowers. / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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