Nine hours of a Cassandra flower blooming

Echinopsis is a large genus of cacti native to South America, sometimes known as hedgehog cactus. They are known and admired due to their flowers, which can be quite spectacular.

There are 128 species within the genus and they all enjoy limestone or other calcium-rich soils and of course, they hate humidity. The soil should never be saturated, as the soft fibrous roots will rot if kept wet for any length of time.

24 hours in the life of ten Daydream flowers

The problem with blooming cacti is that the entire thing happens late at night, and can last less than an hour. Lucky for us, Echinopsis enthusiast Greg Krehel has a knack for capturing these blooms, and recorded them in Timelapse HD. Here are some of his favorite shots from the 2014 season, and he’s already posting new videos from this spring on Vimeo. (via National Geographic).

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