Anyone Else Here Into Rhipsalis?

[pitbulllady]

I collect Rhipsalis and related epiphytic cacti, and was wondering if anyone else here was also into these. I used to have a much-larger collection, which I parted out several years ago when I had to move, but I'm getting back into them gradually now. Current species I have include R. cereuscula, R. capillariformes, R. elliptica, R. rhombea, R. trigona, R. baccifera, R. baccifera horrida, R. pilocarpa, R. clavata, Hatiora salicorniodes, Lepismium cruciformes, L. warmingiana & Epiphyllum oxypetelum, as well as a Selenocereus mcdowelli. These are easy-care plants that are quite unusual as conversation pieces.

pitbulllady

 

[SuperMommy]

I love any kind of cacti and succulents, I just have 2x X-mas cactus and 1x Easter cactus... not sure of the scientific names though.

 

[pitbulllady]

I love any kind of cacti and succulents, I just have 2x X-mas cactus and 1x Easter cactus... not sure of the scientific names though.

Both of those plants are in the Rhipsalidae complex. Christmas cacti are usually hybrids and cultivars of various Schlumbergera species, usually S. epiphylliodes and S. truncata. Easter cacti are even more closely related to the true Rhipsalis, and are classified as Hatiora gaertneri. I haven't seen any Easter cacti around here for sale in a long, long time. I used to have a couple of those, and honestly cannot remember what happened to them, and I've never been able to replace them. I've also had no luck finding a "rat-tailed cactus", Aporocactus flagellum, or a mature specimen of Selinocereus grandiflora. I had a huge one of those about 25 years ago and it was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 because I honestly didn't think that the storm would amount to much and never bothered to bring the plant inside, foolish me. I've had my S. mcdowelli for at least 13 years now, and it's refused to bloom for me. It seems to be a very slow grower compared to the other epiphytic cacti.

pitbulllady

 

[pa3k_87]

I used to collect cacti back when I was still living in the Philippines. I think I got Rhipsalis paradoxa (Chain cactus), and Rhipsalis baccifera (?). I got a few that kinda looks like they might belong to the Rhipsalis family, but not really sure. Other epiphytes I got were Fishbone cactus, Pithaya/Dragon fruit, and one we called Queen of the night. Some sort of night-blooming cactus, with big white flowers, and are a bit more leafy-lookin and flat compared to the fishbone cactus. Left my collection with my aunt back there. Wonder if they survived all the monsoon going on for the past few years.