Brahma Kamal - a type of lotus which blooms at night

It's called Brahma Kamal in India and is rated as amongst the more exotic flowers to be found in human homes. It's a type of cactus and its main feature is that it produces a flower that opens only at night and lasts only for a few hours, always dying before dawn. Some people give parties to celebrate the event, usually timed for mid-summer and no-one who has seen one can forget it because it looks like a blessing in the shape of a beautiful white-petalled flower.

These are the lovely snaps taken when the flower bloomed in my home recently.