Easter Lily Cactus

A young plant is usually a single green globe, sometimes with a slight gray-blue cast. Along the crest of each rib sit areoles, the small cushions where spines and flowers both emerge. The spines are short and stout, dark brown to blackish, and curve outward rather than lying flat. Over several years, the plant produces offsets, or pups, from around its base. These fill in around the parent stem until the group reaches roughly two feet across. Flower buds appear from areoles about halfway up the side of a stem. Each bud stretches into a slender tube six to twelve inches long before the funnel-shaped bloom opens. A well-grown clump can carry several open flowers on the same evening. Pollinated flowers are followed by green fruits about an inch and a half long.

This cactus does not come from true desert. It grows in subtropical grasslands, on low hills, and among rock outcrops, mostly below 3,300 feet. Summers there are hot and wet, and winters are mild with occasional light frost. That history matters in the garden. Established plants accept regular summer water as long as the soil drains quickly, which sets them apart from many desert cacti. Sandy, gravelly, or rocky soils suit them well, and heavy clay does not. Like other cacti, the plant uses CAM photosynthesis, meaning it opens its leaf pores at night to take in carbon dioxide and lose less water. The ribs work as an accordion, swelling after rain and drawing in during drought. Gardeners in zone 8b should site plants where winter soil stays dry, since cold and wet roots cause more losses than cold air alone.

The long floral tube and pale, sweetly scented, night-opening flower are hallmarks of hawkmoth pollination. Hawkmoths hover at the bloom and reach the nectar with a long, coiled tongue. The trade-off is brevity: a flower opens in the evening and usually collapses by the following afternoon, sooner in hot weather. This species has been grown and crossed since the 1800s, and its taxonomy reflects that. Plants once sold as Echinopsis eyriesii and Echinopsis multiplex are now treated as the same species. Many bright red, orange, and yellow cacti labeled "Echinopsis" in the trade are hybrids rather than the wild species, which blooms in white through lavender. Handle the plant with folded newspaper or thick gloves, as the stiff spines can puncture skin.