A a painted lady butterfly feeds on a Pride of Madeira at the Santa Monica Boardwalk on Wednesday, March 7, 2012.

Memphis Daugherty rolls a rack of flowers along Main Street to  the Santa Monica Farmers Market on Sunday, September 12, 2010.



Colorful orchids absorb sunshine at the Santa Monica Main Street Farmers Market on Sunday, December 13, 2009.

An orchid absorbs sunlight at the Santa Monica Main Street Farmers Market on Sunday, July 26, 2009.

Nightblooming cereus, also known as the lunar flower, moon flower and queen of the night, blooms Sunday night, July 12, 2009, in Santa Monica. The bud slowly began to open at about 7pm and was in full bloom by midnight. Each bloom only lasts for that one night. By sunrise the flower is spent. They bloom just on one or two nights of the year--typically around May 30th. The flower is very fragrant and is used to make perfumes. The plant grows as a thin, almost dead looking stick from a single stem in the ground.

Family: Cactaceae (kak-TAY-see-ee) Genus: Epiphyllum (ep-ih-FYE-lum) Species: oxypetalum (oks-ee-PET-al-um)

Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans) blooms along the Santa Monica Beach Boardwalk on Friday, March 27, 2009. Pride of Madeira is a large evergreen shrub-like woody perennial with small white or purple blossoms in dense 20" long cone shaped clusters; this plant flowers through spring and ends by the start of summer. Pride of Madeira is from the borage family (boraginaceae) that grows up to eight feet in full sun.