At Cambridge University Botanic Garden, they are expecting another flowering of the Moonflower cactus plant Strophocactus wittii (formerly Selenicereus wittii).
It is likely this will be at night, possibly sometime over the next week, they said last week. They have set up a live webcam feed, so people can follow it if they'd like to.
The first time it flowered was in February 2021 – which was the first ever flowering of this plant in the UK. This captured the attention of over 500,000 people during lockdown.
This flower, located in CUBG's Tropics House, usually opens at night and flowers for just one night, they say. However, in 2021 it surprised them by flowering in the afternoon. "Our Glasshouse team is keeping a close eye on this one – they are expecting it to flower in the next week, and at night, so we have set up a webcam so people can follow its progress."
Kathryn Bray, Senior Horticulturist at CUBG, says: "We're measuring the bud daily. When this plant flowered in 2021, the bud was 26cm in length. Although this one is significantly smaller, we are anticipating flowering imminently as the bud is swelling and the pedicel (flower stalk) is beginning to lower, which is a sign it is getting ready to flower."
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