Lepismium cruciforme, var. myosurus, var. anceps, var. knightii, var. cavernosum, var. myosurus, var. vollii

For a long time, Lepismiums confused people because of their similarities to Rhipsalis. Finally, in about the 1980s, some experts decided to do away with the name Lepismium in favor of Rhipsalis. This doesn't put aside some of the confusion over the L.. cruciform varieties. Some people, including the two leading experts, Barthlott and Taylor, refer to Lepismium.

The geographic concentration of members of this group is overwhelmingly southeastern Brazil, with some dispersal to Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. Keep in mind that references to countries of origin are based only on a few written references, primarily Britton and Rose, and Backeberg, and that often geographic distributions are wider despite the lack of published data on the subject. None of this group has been reported from Africa or Madagascar, although a specimen labeled R. zanzibarica mentioned earlier here under R. baccifera, has displayed the sunken ovary characteristic typical of this so-called Lepismium group, however, it has not flowered in 20 years so further identification is no possible.

Rose recognized but one species of Lepismium--L. cruciforme. All varieties--myosurus, anceps, knightii and cavernosum--which were later recognized by Backeberg-- were referred by Rose to the type specimen. The curious thing about Rose's conclusion was his failure to comment on the different flower colors among the varieties. L. cruciforme and L. cruciforme var. cavernosum have white and yellow flowers respectively, while L. cruciforme var. anceps and L. cruciforme var. myosurus have violet-to-rose flowers respectively. Backeberg also recognized L. cruciforme var. myosurus var. vollii which was recognized as serrated-leafed and all from eastern Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. All other members of the Lepismium group are pencil-stemmed types.

Clive Innes and Charles Glass, in their book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cacti, show photographs of (and refer to them as) Lepismium cruciforme, L. cruciforme var. anceps, L. cruciforme var. anceps,  L. cruciforme var. knightii, and L. cruciforme var. myosurus (*The photo above of L. cruciforme var. myosurus, given to Ken Friedman as a 35mm slide in 1978 by Barthlott, is the same as the one in the Innes and Glass book.).

Backeberg transferred a number of species from Rhipsalis to Lepismium and both Rose and Backeberg recognized two species whose identities are now questioned--R. boliviana Britton and R. linearis Schumann.

Nigel Taylor from Kew calls them Lepismium (06/06) and the New Cactus Lexicon refers to them as Lepismium.

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