
Seen on my walk. If I hadn’t had the dog, and been so far from home, I would have bought a bunch.

The torch cactus is native to western Argentina, and is commonly sold in nurseries in North America. It reaches 2 metres in height, and like many cacti, has big showy flowers that open at night. There was a pollen-drunk bee buried so deep in this one, I only noticed it because of the movement of the stamens.

My lovely neighbour gives me one of these every December. When checking how to spell ‘amaryllis’ I learned that it’s actually in the genus Hippeastrum. Learn something new every day!
