Epiphyllum oxypetalum

Queen of the night blooms for a single night: its huge white flowers open at dusk, fill the whole garden with a sweet fragrance, and have closed by dawn. It's worth staying up to see. It's a spineless epiphytic cactus from Central America with flat, leaf-like stems that lives on rainforest trees in the wild. Its night flowers are made for bats and moths.

Native from southern Mexico to Nicaragua, in humid forests. It grows well in full sun or light afternoon shade but appreciates protection during the hottest hours. It wants a loose, organic, very well-drained, slightly acid mix, and moisture during the dry months. Hang it in a basket, grow it on a tree or in a pot with a support. It propagates very easily from stem cuttings.

Its flowers, rich in mucilage, are eaten in vegetable soups in parts of Asia. The oblong, purplish-red fruits are edible too, but rarely form.

In Guatemala it's customary to bind the broad, tough stems of Epiphyllum around broken bones: they work as splints that hold the bone in place. In folk medicine it has also been used for urinary and respiratory problems.