Xerophyte

Seeds

Ovoid, brownish red.

Description

It is a slender, much-branched at base, creeping or epiphytic cactus cultivated as a houseplant for nearly 300 years. It one of the most popular of cacti for its ubiquity in modern collections and home use. The 'Rat's Tail' is also very free-flowering, and its long, slender stems bear multitudes of crimson-pink blooms and makes a good hanging plant. A larger specimen can be quite impressive, tumbling out of a pot, suggesting a waterfall. It is said that it deserves first place among the Cacti of easy culture.

Note

This species, too, has cristate forms.

Flowers

Diurnal, borne laterally, red to purplish-pink usually 5-8(-10) cm long, 2,5-4(-7,5) cm wide, double-sided, symmetrical (zygomorphic) instead of perfectly regular and similar to that of the Christmas cactus Zygocactus truncatusSN|2950]]SN|2950]]), limb bilaterally symmetric, upcurved and slightly oblique, open for 3-5 days, scentless. Pericarpel almost straight greenish with acute bracteoles; receptacle 3 cm, long, curved just above pericarpel, bracteoles, brownish, acute; outer tepals linear-lanceolate, ± reflexed, 2-3 cm long, 6 mm wide, crimson; inner tepals narrowly oblong, to 10 mm wide, crimson, sometimes passing to pink along the margins; stamens white to pale pink, erect, excerted; style stigma lobes 5-7, white

Blooming Season

It flowers in mid and late spring and blooms for several days.

Spines

9-14(-20), tiny, acicular, bristle-like, reddish brown or reddish yellow, 4-5(-10) mm long.

Ribs

7-12 Obtuse and inconspicuous, margins ± tuberculate

Stem

Slender, vine-like, weak, ascending at first, soon prostrate or pendulous (or climbing), fresh-green later grey-green, terete, up to 1,5(-2) m (or even more) long, round in cross-section about 1-2 cm in diameter.

Fruits

Globose, 10-12 mm long, 10 mm in diameter, red bristly, pulp yellowish.

Areoles

Minute, whitish, close set 4-8 mm apart.