Provenient from a cactus which blooms rarely and only at night, the
Queen of the Night wilts before dawn. The species is
native to Southern Mexico and extensive areas of South America. Is it
wildly cultivated; escapes from cultivation in tropical areas especially
in the southeast Asia, and has become naturalised in China.
The Chinese chengyu 曇花一現 (tán huā yī xiàn) use this flower
(tan-hua; 曇花) to describe someone who has an impressive but
very brief moment of glory, like a "flash in a pan", since an
Epiphyllum oxypetalum plant might bloom only once a year over a
few days. Therefore, someone described as a "曇花一現" is generally
understood to be a person who shows off or unexpectedly gains some
achievement and is thought to be an exception or only lucky.
CORPSE FLOWER
(Amorphophallus titanum)
One of the world's largest and rarest flowering structures, the
Corpse Flower is a pungent plant that blooms rarely and
only for a short time. They can take up to seven years to bloom; some
only bloom once every few decades. While it is in bloom, the flower
emits a strong odor similar to rotting meat or a decaying corpse. The
smell and the dark burgundy color of the plant are meant to imitate a
dead animal to attract the insects that pollinate it.
The Amorphophallus titanum is native solely to western Sumatra
and western Java, where it grows in openings in rainforests, on
limestone hills. However, the plant is cultivated by botanical gardens
and private collectors around the world.
GHOST ORCHID
(Dendrophylax lindenii)
Native to Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas, the
Ghost Orchid is a plant that was presumed to be extinct
for almost 20 years and only recently materialized again. The plant is
so rare because it is near-impossible to propagate. It has no leaves and
does not use photosynthesis to manufacture its own food — it needs
a specific fungus in close contact with its root system to feed it.
The Ghost Orchid can live underground for years. In Cuba they grow on
cypress tress in which they appear to float like ghosts, thus the name.
They can only be polinated by the giant sphinx moth and if their seeds
land on a specific moss.
