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The rainy season has just started in Central America and these Epiphyllums are doing their share.

Beautiful!

Yes beautiful and so much more interesting than the "Epiphyllum" hybrids to me. The very long flower tubes compared to the so called Epiphyllum hybrids show there is little true Epiphyllum blood in the "Orchid Cacti". Does it set seed or is it self sterile?

DaveW wrote:Yes beautiful and so much more interesting than the "Epiphyllum" hybrids to me. The very long flower tubes compared to the so called Epiphyllum hybrids show there is little true Epiphyllum blood in the "Orchid Cacti". Does it set seed or is it self sterile?

I acquired some true epiphyllum oxypetalum with the long flower tubes from a very old collector who now literally has an epiphyllum tree. If mine ever set seeds i'll send them your way if you want them.

Yes, certainly I would be interested in seed if non hybrid. I do grow a few epiphytes but not the hybrids. Disocactus macranthus flowered a week or so ago, not very large flowers compared to the "Orchid Cacti", but more interesting to me. Any cacti that flower in our winter are a bonus.
This is still one of the best articles I have found on true species of epiphytic cacti. A lot of the old genera lumped under Disocactus, Hatiora and Selenicereus so personally not sure that is not a bit of "over lumping":-

https://www.scribd.com/presentation/556 ... ytic-Cacti

It does show one of the differences between the flower of the hybrid 'Akermannii', with white stigma lobes and Disocactus akermannii ssp. akermannii with pink stigma lobes.

Incidentally the picture of Epiphyllum crenatum ssp. kimnachii does disprove David Hunt's contention that any Epiphyllum with multi-angled stems are hybrids, unless you don't consider it an Epiphyllum? A form of this was grown in cultivation for many years as E. cooperi and thought to be a hybrid until rediscovered in the wild. See the comments by Myron Kimnach at the bottom of this link:-

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

Somehow the unusal shape reminds of cinitia knizei. So the pink stigma, is what makes a disocactus acketmanii a true plant, rather than a hybrid? Means mine is probably a hybrid then.

Not the only difference Stefan, but one of them. Whether pink stigma's are diagnostic is debatable, but the early illustrations show them as non white. The true ackermannii only has flat leaf-like and not multi-angled stems, as do most true Epiphyllum's except for E. crenatum and it's subspecies.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... annii1.jpg

http://plantillustrations.org/illustrat ... n=2&size=1

So, mines also multi-angled. Well if nothing else, i can at least prove thats its definetely not an ackermanii, but a hybridus.

I have had mixed success at my location, which is not in the same climate zone of many of my cacti. E. costaricense flowers and fruits, E.thomasianum flowers but does not fruit. It may be climate or lack of pollinator, age of plant, or just blind luck.
My 2 species of Weberocereus did not flower but flowered when I moved them to a higher/cooler/moister location.