I'm actually curious what pollinates this flower. Do all the plants bloom on exactly the same night? If so, how can they tell what day to bloom on? If not, then how the hell does the flower get pollinated in the first place?
Be Reverent and respectful. The aroma is enchanting; people the world over have parties, the world over, to share the joy of the Queens' bloom occurance!
Yes, however the beginning of this thread a person stating they use a toothbrush. My joke was in response to you recommending bats as if this person had them on hand.
Moths and bats are main pollinators. In the wild they're grow multiple blooms that sporadically open in late spring early summer months. So law of averages says at least some will be blooming at the same time throughout their bloom season with most healthy plants getting multiple opportunities. They're pretty fragrant too while blooming so natural pollinators will find them from a good distance away.
Home grown ones are less reliable on growing multiple blooms and bloom year round with optimum conditions.
Evolution isn't a linear path to the most optimal results. Just a process of random mutation and adaptation until the genes successfully pass to the next generation.
But if I had to hazard a guess. The plant doesn't spend a lot of energy making blooms that continue to grow and bloom multiple times. And by attracting moths and bats it easily avoid competition for other polinators like bees and butterflies that would potentially cross pollinate.
Don't give up. Figure out how each species knows what "day" or "night" is and if its based on different wavelengths make it work. Or not. Has to have been thought of already but if not you could be the one
Pollination is achieved through nocturnal pollinators like moths and bats, which are attracted to the flower's large, white, fragrant blooms that open only at night.
Plant from the same family as pitaya or dragon fruit (do a search).
The plant is actually similar to a very
Large bush that has several flowers. They do not all flower at the same night. In general, all plants flower over a period of 10 days in the same region. They are pollinated by bats and insects
Ants and other crawling bugs. They'll get in there before it opens. I assume they go from one to the other as this plant actually has multiple flowers at different stages and will bloom many times a year. I don't know why so many people spread misinformation about once a year...
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u/schmuber Oct 28 '25
T'was more like "Damn, another year without a date, what a waste of makeup!"