Margaret Mee who died in 1988 made dozens of highly accurate paintings of flowers in the tropical forests of Brasil. A year earlier she told Tony her greatest ambition was to paint a night flowering cactus Selenicereus wittii as it opened in the Amazon forest. Tony with the help of friends in Brasil took Margaret who was then 78 to the cactus at the time when it was expected to bloom. The flowering period was short and each bud opened just once for one night. This sequence with the flower opening comes from a tape made as a 'pilot' for a project left unfinished when she died.

Project directed by Tony Morrison, Arranged by Gilberto Castro [Manaus] , Camera - Brian Sewell, [Rio de Janeiro] Production manager Sue Loram [Rio de Janeiro] who acted as Margaret Mee's aide throughout. Some of the original video is now in the Brasilian film Margaret Mee e a Flor da Lua

For more info about the video — [video + audio from her final journey [on the menu - left].

© South American Pictures / Nonesuch Expeditions

The story and painting of the 'Moonflower' appeared for the first time in its original form in the now classic book Margaret Mee, In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forests, 1988 — published by Nonesuch Expeditions [Margaret Mee's books— on the menu - left].