Friday, April 30, 2010

Bunga Bakawali, a myth.

,The plant goes by many names; bunga bakawali in malaysia, wijaya kusuma in indonesia, Queen of the night, Night-blooming Cereus, Dutchman's Pipe, Gul-e-Bakavali  in Hindi, Kadupul in Sinhala. Bunga Bakawali is in fact a cactus. 

We have this in a pot. I am not too sure how long will it take to mature and bloom. It seems that this cactus blooms at night and only for that night. It has been reported that bunga bakawali, will start off its blooming stage  around 9pm and opens up fully by midnight and closes around 3am. A person had described the fragrance of the flower as "an intoxicatingly extravagant fragrance ". The famous Arabian Nights mentioned about the Rose of Bakawali, There is mystic behind this flower at least in this part of the world.


The plant is a giveaway from Rosiah, my sister who doesn't seem to venture  too much out of Pantai Remis, the place seven of us were born and grew up.  It is so easy to propagate this cactus, according to her. A portion of the matured leaf is good enough to produce roots and grow in a pot.







pokok bunga bakawali 



It is going to be a long wait...for the mystical fragrant blooming night.



References:
  1. evolusi pengembangan bunga bakawali... | topotato.com
  2. Bakawali 
  3. Arabian Nights
  4. Epiphyllum


bangchik
putrajaya malaysia


21 comments:

  1. I am sure it is very worth the wait!

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  2. Hi Bangchik, I have seen a pot of this plant bloomed in the balcony of my neighbour back in Melaka. The bloom looked unique too. I didn't know that it's Bakawali. I used to read about this flowers in Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. Now I can say, I have seen a Bakawali bloom.

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  3. What an interesting plant. I have not heard of this type of cactus before. I hope you do not have to wait too long to enjoy it's flowers :-)

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  4. Hello Bangchik. Your plant may be Epiphyllum oxypetalum. I grow Hylocereus undatus in Bermuda which is also colloquially called Night-blooming Cereus.

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  5. wow I've seen one in person now - I'm looking forward to watching this grow along with you.

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  6. You just tell us when it'll have a bud - we all will take turns to wake you up so that you wouldn't miss a bloom!

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  7. I heard there are plants that you can produce roots from the leaves. Very cool...like to see the outcome.

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  8. Good luck with the blooms! When that time comes, it is truly going to be a huge reward for you ;-D

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  9. WOW!! My plant is in same stage, shooting leaf nd stem from the leaves, almost same size as urs. Lets c which one boolms first. wll keep u posted..:)

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  10. ~Rosey Pollen
    It better be.. haha.

    ~J.C.
    Unique indeed JC.., and the fragrance is said to be a glimpse of heaven!

    ~Noelle
    Difficult for me to ascertain roughly when the plant is ready to bloom.

    ~Prospero
    I guess there is so many type of this cactus.., with the habit of blooming at night and releasing the most heavenly fragrance.

    BANGCHIK

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  11. ~Rosie@leavesnbloom
    I will give updates periodically just to maintain some level of suspense.. haha.

    ~Tatyana@MySecretGarden
    I will definitely show here as soon as the buds appear. Hopefully they appear over weekends so I can stay up the whole night to witness.

    ~Patsi 'Garden Endeavors'
    Surprising Patsi. Many plants are versatile enough to produce roots through leaves. Cactus especially.

    ~Stephanie
    I hope I wont miss the night of happening!

    ~AaronVFT
    They somehow share the same ancestors... variants of cactus.

    ~Rupa
    haha.. It is going to be a race.. which bloom first!


    BANGCHIK
    MALAYSIA

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  12. When it blooms you will have to thank your sister. My latest entry on my blog is of this very plant. I was up all night watching and smelling its beauty.

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  13. ~Doc
    It must be fun watching it blooming and stay up all night... ~bangchik

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  14. Op 20 juni 2011
    After twenty years, my first Queen of the night/epiphyllum oxypetalum. I didn't know what kind of plant or cactus it was. Lucky the flower was so stunning that I took a photogaph of it. I had no idea that her blooming was so short, and the smell is as she looks. Sadly there were two but due to the wind from my open window it fell off.
    This one came from Indonesie
    I have also seen a Bakawali bloom

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  15. Assalamualaikum, nak minta izin tuan punya blog utk copy paste info tentang bunga bakawali di atas utk dimuat ke dalam info bunga bakawali ini berikutan sy sebagai pengkagum bunga mistikal ini telah mengabadikan nama bunga ini menjadi nama rasmi perniagaan sy.

    sekiranya diberikan izin sy akan kreditkan blog tuan punya blog ini.

    sekian terima kasih :-)


    My Bakawali
    www.mybakawali.com
    www.mybakawali.blogspot.com
    mybakawali@gmail.com
    founder@mybakawali.com

    ReplyDelete

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