Cactus Incognito
Hello Neighbor!
For three years, there’s been a fifteen foot tall cactus in our neighbor’s yard, six feet away from our back door, but Anita and I never noticed until it bloomed. To be fair, most of the plant is behind a garden shed and fence, and we have to stand in rather contorted positions to view or photograph it, but I would have expected us to notice it before now. Though, this is a phenomenon I’ve observed before; some plants just are low-profile until they bloom. Hellebores, for instance, usually manage to stay below the radar and avoid detection until they finally bloom. I didn’t expect the same thing to happen with a fifteen foot tall cactus.
the view through our fence
Tags: cactus
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 5:55 pm and is filed under plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 16th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
That flower is unreal. Wonder if anything will pollinate it here in the Bay Area.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Bees will pollinate it. It needs cross-pollination to set fruit, but I have seen them around town with fruit. I’m not sure if we have the right moths.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Cacti produce the most unlikely flowers. They just aren’t congruent–such a delicate, sensuous flower on that prickly, cast iron column.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Chuck b., you’re right! And I wish I were more up on cacti so I could help i.d. this one, but I haven’t a clue. Love both photos and interested to hear about pollinators. Apparently it pays to spy on your neighbors…in a genteel way, of course.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Sorry if I was negligent in the ID. I think it’s a Cereus peruvianus/Cereus uruguayanus, which have a lot of common names and are often grown as a houseplant.
And I agree that there is a startling, incongruous quality about their flowers.
July 17th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
You couldn’t help but notice that lovely bloom.
July 18th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
it’s a BEAUTY !