One of our smaller Echinopsis werdermannii cactus flowers started to open last night.
The flowers only last for 24 hours.
We have a few different species of Echinopsis cactus plants in our back garden, and they are a real pleasure on the eyes.
They travel with us whenever we move to other places, as we lift them and put them in pots for the journey. Then at our new home, I find a spot for them that they will enjoy and we simply plant them there. The Christ thorn cactus and the Jacob's Ladder succulent tree stay in their big pots, until we find our final home, as then I will also plant them out of the pots. But for now, they have to remain in their pots and thankfully they are happy in the pots.
I took the photo below on my flash at 9pm last night, to show you the slow opening of the flower.
And this was also on the flash at 11:30pm.
Echinopsis werdermannii is a species of Echinopsis found in Paraguay
And we have them here in South Africa.
Echinopsis werrmannii grows singly. The spherical, gray-green shoots reach diameters of up to 12 centimeters and heights of up to 8 centimeters. There are ten to twelve straight and sharp-edged ribs. The single black central spine is up to 0.2 centimeters long. The three to eight marginal spines are blackish.
The long, tube-shaped, funnel-shaped flowers are light pink. The flowers are up to 20 centimeters long.
Sadly the flowers are not as colorful as the ones of the bigger plants, but the plants are small and it was this one's first time to flower.
A last look at the flower and in the photo below this one, you can see the plant at the base of the flower.
Good news!
This bigger green plant below is also starting to push out a flower stem. I have marked it with 4 little yellow arrows to show you. Look at the bottom of the photo to see the new stem.
And sadly, in the mid afternoon our Echinopsis flower started to close again, so the show was over. So, we said Hasta La Vista.
Here below is something different.
A wee little butterfly came in to sit on a flower of the Christ Thorn cactus plant.
And this wasp was doing yoga stretches above the flowers of the Jacob's Ladder tree.
Can you believe that sparrows catch tiny Dwarf Geckos to feed to their babies. We have our hands full to keep them out of the back garden. So now we have geckos running around with no tails. The little waxbill swees that nested in the lemon tree are also gone now without even showing one of their babies to us.
But such is life, and we just continue to do our own thing.
I hope that you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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