Forget Christmas in July

[IronWing]

It's Hanukkah in June!





Night blooming cereus cactus (Queen of the Night). They bloom for one night each year. All the cacti in an area bloom on the same night. They smell incredible.

 

[lxskllr]

Stuff like that is weird. I don't know enough about plants to speculate on the strategy, but blooming one day a year, or even less in some cases seems wildly impractical, though it obviously works. What pollinates it?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Hey, that's really neat. I agree with @lxskllr , it is rather weird, but still pretty neat.

They say the Cicadas are coming out this year, after 17 years in the ground. How does THAT work?

 

[Iron Woode]

Stuff like that is weird. I don't know enough about plants to speculate on the strategy, but blooming one day a year, or even less in some cases seems wildly impractical, though it obviously works. What pollinates it?

reproduction (flowering in this case) takes a huge amount of energy, especially for a plant that lives in a harsh environment where conserving everything is a priority. Synchronizing the flowering allows the greatest chance of pollination and successful seed production.

Pollination done at night is usually by moths or bats depending on the strategy involved in that particular area.

 

[Iron Woode]

Hey, that's really neat. I agree with @lxskllr , it is rather weird, but still pretty neat.

They say the Cicadas are coming out this year, after 17 years in the ground. How does THAT work?

It takes some cicadas around 17 years to complete the larval stage. Also understand that this is staggered so that every year cicadas emerge and this year means there will be a bumper crop. It happens and there are videos of it on youtube.

found this:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/10-scintillating-facts-about-cicadas-1.1376256

 

[Iron Woode]

 

[IronWing]

Stuff like that is weird. I don't know enough about plants to speculate on the strategy, but blooming one day a year, or even less in some cases seems wildly impractical, though it obviously works. What pollinates it?

The main pollinator is the white-lined sphinx moth though other moths may pollinate it as well. I don’t know if bats do or not. The flowers don’t produce much nectar.

Hyles lineata - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org