Verna

I bought this cactus at Basha’s a few weeks ago because it looked nice. It has been living on the patio since then and last week a flower bud appeared. It opened last night and produced this beautiful flower seen in the images above and below.

We weren’t sure about the cactus variety, so I uploaded the photo just above to Grok AI which said it is likely an Easter Lily Cactus.

From Grok:

It looks like an Echinopsis species, probably something like Echinopsis oxygona (Easter Lily Cactus) or a close hybrid/relative. These are popular houseplants or garden cacti known for their large, showy white (sometimes pink-tinged) flowers that often bloom at night or in the evening and last about a day.

Key matching features from the photo:

• The flower: Large, multi-petaled white bloom with a yellowish-green center and many slender petals radiating out.
• The stem/peduncle: Long, fuzzy/hairy green tube supporting the flower (a hallmark of many Echinopsis blooms).
• The body: Ribbed, globular-to-columnar green cactus with prominent areoles (the white spots where spines emerge).

Why this identification fits
Echinopsis (formerly often lumped with Trichocereus) are South American cacti common in nurseries and big-box stores like Bashas’ (a grocery chain in Arizona). They match the “night-blooming” or short-lived fragrant white flowers on woolly stems perfectly.

The flower was open this morning, and by late afternoon it had closed and the stem was slumped over. So, we will assume that this is indeed an Easter Lily Cactus. Click on either image to enlarge.

Once again it is fall in the desert and with it comes the beautiful flowers on our Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus. This trio, along with several others, was open today after a nice rainfall yesterday. Click on the image to enlarge.

Ferocactus latispinus is the binomial nomenclature for what is commonly called the Devil’s Tongue cactus. Wikipedia offers the following information about this cactus:

Ferocactus latispinus is a species of barrel cactus native to Mexico. It grows as a single globular light green cactus reaching the dimensions of 30 cm (12 in) in height and 40 cm (16 in) across, with 21 acute ribs. Its spines range from reddish to white in color and are flattened and reach 4 or 5 cm long. Flowering is in late autumn or early winter. The funnel-shaped flowers are purplish or yellowish and reach 4 cm long, and are followed by oval-shaped scaled fruit which reach 2.5 cm (1 in) long.

We posted that this is the first year that this cactus has had flower buds a while back and now the first two have opened on the same cactus. The (clickable) image above is a close up of one of the first two flowers now open.

From LEO AI:

The saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) is a iconic symbol of the American Southwest. Its flowers are a vibrant white color and bloom only at night, typically in May and June. The flowers are an important food source for various animals, including bats, hummingbirds, and bees. After pollination, the flowers develop into red, fleshy fruit that can take several years to ripen. The fruit is an important food source for desert animals, such as Gila woodpeckers and cactus wrens, which help disperse the seeds by consuming the fruit and then depositing the seeds in a new location.

The other two saguaros on the property are showing flower buds, so we should be getting lots of these beautiful flowers as we progress into May and June. We will likely post more flower photos as they pop up.

UPDATE 05/19/25: The flowers have kept coming and are far from being done at this time. Here’s another close-up of one of them: