Selenicereus anthonyanus

[Shmuel]

Hi all. Is Selenicereus anthonyanus the only one with a "fishbone" leaf structure? I am finally getting around to getting IDs for all my un-named plants.

One that I am pretty sure is Selenicereus vagans has lots of arial roots. It even stuck on a wall. Is this behavior consistent with S. vagan, or does it indicate it is something else?

Thanks!

Shmuel

[DaveW]

Some species Epiphyllums also have a "fishbone" stem structure. They are flattened two ribbed stems (cladodes) by the way, not leaves, flowers never grow from leaves. Many cacti do have leaves, but these are usually reduced to minute little structures in the areole:-

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mauseth/resea ... Leaves.htm

Many Selenicereus clamber, climb up or hang onto trees with those aerial roots. Some claim those roots also absorb moisture from the air, or water running down the tree trunk.

The red outer petaled flower is quite characteristic on S. anthonyanus because the true Epiphyllum species (not the so called Orchid Cacti) are usually all white flowered. If you click on the pictures in the next link they enlarge.

http://www.cristoalmeria.com/epifitos2010/selenicereus/

https://thepalmroom.wordpress.com/plant ... id-cactus/

[Shmuel]

Hi Dave. Thanks for the info and links. The fishbone never flowered, though I have had it for a number of years. Probably not enough light. Some of the cladodes are almost a meter long.

The other will have to be Selenocerius sp or S. vagan aff. (if I can do such a thing.) It also has nebver flowered.

Shmuel

[DaveW]

My S. anthonyanus flowered last month on stems about 20 inches long. It seems to flower in Autumn (Fall) with me. My greenhouse gets quite cool at the end of the year so it does not get a lot of heat late in the year in the UK.

I find some Selenicereus have to have quite long stems to flower with me, whereas others will flower on only three foot long stems.

This one never flowered for me until it was about 8ft long and up in the greenhouse roof.

selenicereus.jpg (186.37 KiB) Viewed 1000 times

Whereas this flowers on a stem about 3ft long every year.

HG.jpg (248.57 KiB) Viewed 1000 times

HG2.jpg (246.74 KiB) Viewed 1000 times

The one above is in quite a small pot, whereas the first one was planted in my centre bed. So maybe restricting the roots in a pot in not too rich soil encourages it to flower rather than make vegatative growth?

[Shmuel]

Beautiful! I see why they call them Queen of the Night. How much sun do they get?

[DaveW]

Just normal British summer sun, which most times is nowhere near as intense as the sun in your warmer climates. As you can see from the lower pictures I leave the bubble wrap insulation up all year in my greenhouse since it is UV stabilised and too much trouble to take down and put up each year. However they flowered OK before it went up.

Selenicereus grandiflorus, the original "Queen of the night", seems to have different sized flowering clones lumped into it. Not all seem produce the really large flowers which can be 30cm (one foot diameter) or more. However I suppose individual flower size can also depend on how vigourous the plant is, plus how many flowers it is carrying at the time since numerous flowers on a plant are usually smaller than if it only produces a single bloom at the time.

Also see:-

http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... orus+DaveW

[Shmuel]

I have to catch my breath after the photos in that link, Dave. There is totally amazing stuff hidden in the forum - great to see a revival of that one. Thanks for sharing it.

Shmuel