A very common cactus, but what is it?

If you have a cactus plant and need help identifying it, this is the place to post it.
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j4nd3r53n
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A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by j4nd3r53n »

I inherited this one years ago, and being a cactus novice, I don't know what it is, although I see them in many places, but without flowers - can somebody tell me?
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anttisepp
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Re: A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by anttisepp »

Epiphyllum (=Nopalxochia) ackermannii
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j4nd3r53n
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Re: A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by j4nd3r53n »

Thank you! I looked in wikipedia, and apparently it is now called Disocactus. I mostly grow orchids, and I find you have to run to keep up with the name changes - is it the same with cacti?
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greenknight
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Re: A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by greenknight »

Looks like Disocactus ackermannii, which was formerly placed in the genus Epiphyllum. It may actually be a natural hybrid, in any case it's been used in the breeding of many of what are commonly called Epiphyllum hybrids (though they rarely have any of the plants now placed in Epiphyllum in their heritage, those have small white flowers). Most of the ones you see are the hybrids, the reason they aren't blooming is people don't know how to grow them right - they need a dormant period to set buds. Obviously, you're doing it right! Also known as Orchid Cacti.

The earlier replies appeared while I was composing this one.
Spence :mrgreen:
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Licespray
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Re: A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by Licespray »

j4nd3r53n wrote: Mon May 25, 2020 8:37 am Thank you! I looked in wikipedia, and apparently it is now called Disocactus. I mostly grow orchids, and I find you have to run to keep up with the name changes - is it the same with cacti?
Absolutely is. A pain in the backside lol
Ferocactus best cactus :mrgreen:
phil_SK
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Re: A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by phil_SK »

There are two similar plants being confused here.
Disocactus ackermannii, originally published as Epiphyllum ackermannii, is really uncommon in cultivation. Its stems are always flat; cultivation isn't very easy.
A hybrid (probably D. speciosus x D. phyllanthoides), referred to as Epiphyllum "Ackermanii" or E. ×Ackermannii is very similar. It is orders of magnitude more common in cultivation. It produces a mix of flat and triangular stems; cultivation is very easy.
DaveW
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Re: A very common cactus, but what is it?

Post by DaveW »

David Hunt used to claim that any "Epiphyllum" that produced three ribbed or triangular stems was a hybrid, since all true Epiphyllum's only have flattened stems. How true this is I do not know. However there are some with multiangled or multiribbed stems placed into Disocactus, but Disocactus ackermannii is not one of them as Phil says. Again at least in the UK the true ackermannii is hard to obtain, the hybrid triangular stemmed imposter usually going around as it.

One of the causes of the confusion was Britton & Rose in their book Cactaceae they wrongly described the hybrid "ackermanii" as the true species since they did not know the true plant now placed in Disocactus. As with many of these more tender epiphytic cacti introduced to England and colder parts of Europe the true species tended to die out in our climate but the ones with hybrid vigour survived and were often mistakenly labelled as the species. The same occurred with the hybrid Schlumbergera 'Buckleyi' (Christmas Cactus) that was going around in the UK as the species Schlumbergera truncata for decades.

See:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disocactus_ackermannii

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disocactus_×_hybridus
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