Hatiora herminiae (Campos-Porto & Castellanos.) Backeberg ex Barthlott in Bradleya 5: 100 (1987)

©  Barthlott

H. herminiae looks a lot like H. salicornoides and also grows upright but doesn't quite have the same little stems segments. What is unique about this species is its deep rose-pink flowers. The rose photo (35mm slide) was obtained by Ken Friedman from Barthlott in the late 1970s; it appears in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cacti by Clive Innes and Charles Glass. Innes & Glass say herminiae is best grown as a graft. 

  • Body - forming erect shrubs, sometimes arching over.
  • Shoots - branching dichotomously or verticillately, cylindric, only slightly thickened above, matt dark green;
  • Areoles - . with 1-2 minute bristles.;
  • Flowers - mostly solitary, rarely paired, 2 cm long, to 2.5 cm, dark pink;
  • Fruit - olive-green, to 8 mm long;
  • Seed - chestnut-brown.

DISTRIBUTION. Brazil (S Minas Gerais?, E Sao Paulo): Serra da Mantiqueira, epiphyte on Araucaria in cloud forest, to 2000 m altitude.

Photos, top to bottom:

  1. © Courtesy of W. Barthlott
  2. © L. Scherens
  3. © Marcelo A. K. Fontana, Brazil.
  4. © K. Friedman

Below: H. herminea, 85-0652 Brussels BG ©KAF Like all the Rhipsalis and Hatiora at Brussels, this one was sun-reddened.



© Luc Scherens 9/03

© Marcelo A.K. Fontana

 


© Marcelo A.K. Fontana