the.com/night blooming cereus

means A cactus whose large, fragrant flowers open only after dark and wilt by morning, often blooming just one night a year.

from The 'cereus' comes from Latin cera, 'wax,' after the candle-like, waxy-ribbed stems of these cacti; the genus name was fixed in early botanical Latin for plants with tall, torch-like forms. 'Night-blooming' is simply plain English description, tacked on because the flowers' habit of opening after sunset and closing by dawn was too striking not to name directly. The plant itself spans several related cactus genera, so the common name has long traveled loosely across species that share the same one-night spectacle.