Night-blooming Dutchman's Pipe Cactus
(aka Night-blooming Cereus)
Explodes with Blooms During Hottest
August-September Ever
My largest and oldest Dutchman's Pipe Cactus (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) is tangled in a bamboo thicket and growing together with a Coral Bush in an age-old 36" pot that long ago blew out part of one of its sides. Regardless, the plant is exploding with blooms during this hottest summer-to-fall ever in Florida (and everywhere else). Tonight: Another 15 blooms.
It is difficult to photograph the plant because camera lenses fog in the extreme humidity of the Florida "fall" weather. Tonight at midnight the humidity is 94% with an air temperature of 75° (24° C) and a dew point of 73° (23° C). Meaning it is virtually raining even though it is actually, well, not.
The weather forecast for Thursday, September 17, was a near 100% chance of rain. The rain did not materialize but at least it was cloudy all day which made for somewhat cooler temperatures than if the skies had been clear.
I played around with various cameras and lenses to get these shots, despite the near saturated atmosphere.
The purpose of this drab plant having such magnificent flowers is propagation. The elaborate flowers ensure that the pollinator of this plant finds it during its limited bloom time (sundown to sunup, one day only per blossom).
How hot has it been on Earth this summer?
August 2015 was Earth's hottest August on record, and the Northern Hemisphere summer period of June-July-August was the hottest summer since record keeping began in 1880. See NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) for details. NASA rated August 2015 as the 2nd warmest August on record, a mere 0.01°C from tying August 2014's record mark.
August 2015's warmth makes the year-to-date period (January - August) the warmest such period on record, according to both NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Center for Environmental Information) and NASA.
NOAA said that August 2015 was the sixth month in 2015 to break its monthly temperature record, joining February, March, May, June, and July. August 2015 tied with January 2007 for the third warmest monthly departure from average of any of the 1628 months since records began in January 1880 (the record warmest departures occurred in February 2015 and March 2015).
El Niño Enhances Global Warming
Over the oceans, August 2015 had the warmest departure from average of any month in the historical record (previous record: July 2015). A potent El Niño event in the Eastern Pacific that crossed the threshold into the "strong" category in early July continues to intensify, and strong El Niño events release a large amount of heat to the atmosphere, typically boosting global temperatures by at least 0.1°C. This extra bump in temperature, when combined with long-term warming of the planet due to human overpopulation and human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, makes it extremely likely that 2015 will be Earth's second consecutive warmest year on record.
The UK Met Office (United Kingdom's National Weather Service) put out a press release earlier this week predicting that 2016 will continue to see record or near-record levels of global heat, and it is quite possible that Earth will see three consecutive years with record-breaking surface temperatures: 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Global satellite-measured temperatures in August 2015 for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the 3rd warmest in the 37-year record, according to the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH). The lowest 8 km of the atmosphere heats up dramatically in response to moderate to strong El Niño events, with a time lag of several months—as occurred during the El Niño events of 1998 and 2010, the only two years that had warmer August temperatures than 2015. Earth's lower atmosphere temperature will likely hit record levels by early 2016.
Arctic Sea Ice Falls to 4th Lowest August Extent
Meanwhile Arctic sea ice extent during August 2015 was the 4th lowest in the 36-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Sea ice extent likely reached its annual minimum extent on September 11, bottoming out at the 4th lowest extent on record.
In East Central Florida a persistent warm high pressure system contributed to above normal temperatures and less rainfall than the 30-year normal for the summer period. The meteorological summer (June, July, August) saw persistent warm west flow dumping huge rains on the west coast of the Florida peninsula while leaving the east coast drier and warmer than normal.
Despite the weather, the Dutchman's Pipe Cactus thrived.
Often referred to as Queen of the Night or Night Blooming Cereus (because the bloom is nearly identical to those cacti), Dutchman's Pipe Cactus (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) is not closely related to any of the species in the tribe Cereeae, such as Selenicereus grandiflorus (Queen of the Night), that are more commonly known as nightblooming cereus.
I have no clue idea how long the cacti will continue to bloom so prodigiously. New blooms are forming on leaves that have already seen multiple blooms this summer. Presumably as long as the hot and humid weather continues the plant will continue to thrive.
For more of my Dutchman's Pipe Cactus photos go to:
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