| Schlumbergera
truncata (Haworth) Moran in Gentes Herb. 8: 329 (1953).
Desc from B&R 1923
Plants
- joints dark glossy green, about 3 cm. long, sharply serrate, with
two prominent teeth at
otherwise truncate apex;
Terminal
areole
- broad and thin, filled
with
brown wool and bristles;
Flowers - 6 to 7 cm long: tube 2 cm. long;
Inner perianth-segments - scarlet to white, oblong, obtuse to acute, reflexed;
Filaments - white;
Style - purple throughout;
Fruit- obovoid, 1.5 to 2 cm. long.
Type locality:
Brazil.
This species has been cultivated widely for many years
under various names. It was introduced into cultivation about 1818
and, according to Edwards, flowered first in England in 1822 and has since
been a great favorite as a household plant, blooming freely about the
end of the year, hence the name Christmas cactus. It is also called crab
cactus and ringent-flowered cactus.
Notes from Bradleya 13
DISTRIBUTION. Brazil (Rio de Janeiro): Serra do Mar including the Serra
dos Orgaos and lowland Atlantic forest to the south, epilithic and epi¬phytic,
at c. 100-1500 m altitude.
Desc from Hunt 2006
Branches up to 30cm or more, becoming pendulous, scarcely woody at base;
branch segments oblong, truncate, 2.5-8 x 1-4 cm, margins sharply serrate-dentate
with 2-4 forward pointing teeth each side, midrib prominent; areoles
apical and marginal; flowers zygomorphic, 7 x 4.5cm, axis abruptly angled
between pericarp and hypanthium; pericarp terete; hypanthium ca 4cm;
perianth strongly oblique; tepals ca 3 x 1.5cm, recurved, variable in
colour, stamens and style long exserted.
Seedlings of this species have the primary stem flattened from the
beginning (observations are needed of seedling morphology in other species
of the genus).
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