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Rarely is it a good idea to respond to a stranger on a Brooklyn street at night when he asks if you want to see something cool. But occasionally, it pays off.
Tom Randall was walking home late on a recent evening when, against his better judgment, he obliged a disembodied voice from behind a hedge asking if he wanted to see a beautiful flower. He shared the encounter on Twitter.
Here is it, the Queen of the Night 6/6 pic.twitter.com/5VI8vfZfb4
— Tom Randall (@tsrandall) September 7, 2017
“It was almost 11 o’clock, and it was raining and nobody else was out — and I just got the impression he just wanted to share it with someone,” Mr. Randall said in an interview. “It really shimmered with potential for surprise.”
It turned out to be a night-blooming cereus, a blanket term for around a dozen species of cactuses that produce flowers that only bloom at night. This flower (possibly the species Epiphyllum oxypetalum), according to Mr. Randall’s account, blooms one night a year.
The fragrant blossom — in his words, the size of “a newborn baby’s head” — graces the night for only a few hours. By morning, like a sylvan Cinderella, its white petals wilt before the sun ever gets a shot at a kiss.
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