night-blooming cereus

3 definitions found

night-blooming cereus - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Night-blooming \Night"-bloom`ing\, a.
     Blooming in the night.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Night-blooming cereus. (Bot.) See Note under Cereus.
        [1913 Webster]

  Cereus \Ce"re*us\, n. [L., a wax candle, fr. cera wax. So named
     from the resemblance of one species to the columnar shape of
     a wax candle.] (Bot.)
     A genus of plants of the Cactus family. They are natives of
     America, from California to Chili.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Although several species flower in the night, the name
           Night-blooming cereus is specially applied to the
           Cereus grandiflorus, which is cultivated for its
           beautiful, shortlived flowers. The Cereus giganteus,
           whose columnar trunk is sometimes sixty feet in height,
           is a striking feature of the scenery of New Mexico,
           Texas, etc.
           [1913 Webster]

night-blooming cereus - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  night-blooming cereus
      n 1: any of several night-blooming cacti of the genus
           Selenicereus
      2: any of several cacti of the genus Hylocereus
      3: any of several cacti of the genus Cereus