After spotting a very speedy Texas Horned Lizard amongst the artwork in Marfa, I continued my day wandering the tiny art town. The day we chose to visit was not a busy one in Marfa, but it was still proximal enough to Spring Break that a few shops were open, though most of them at odd hours. The town was quiet, and while not the wild in any real sense, it served as an introduction into desert flora and fauna as the desert landscape stretched out around Marfa in all directions. Lizards, flowers and cacti that seemed totally foreign to me were commonplace near sidewalks or in the courtyards of the small shops.
While the cactus I spotted was most likely planted there and maintained by whatever shop was nearest, it was a plant that I saw again and again as we ventured deeper into the wilderness of Big Bend. This cactus towered several feet over my head with long, thin branches that seemed brittle and almost dead. I was unsure whether this was due to season change or poor maintenance, but when trying to identify the plant I learned that this is normal. As far as I can tell, the plant I saw was a night-blooming cereus, a tall native cactus that appears nearly dead for most of the year. But one night each summer, large white flowers bloom on the cactus, only to close back up the same morning. It was a little early for the flowers when I saw the plant in Marfa and it was unlikely anyways that I would’ve been lucky enough to witness that short-lived phenomenon. Nonetheless, it interested me to know that the plant I saw in Marfa and throughout Big Bend has such a unique quality.
Source: http://www.desertusa.com/cactus/night-blooming-cereus.html
iNaturalist Link: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5977670