Orssich Brazilian Christmas Cactus: Wild Parent of Cultivated Hybrids

Summary: Orssich Brazilian Christmas cactus suffers from firewood harvesters and illegal collectors but serves as one of four parents to two cultivated hybrids.

Schlumbergera orssichiana is usually grown in hybrid form with other species, especially as the artificial hybrid Schlumbergera x reginae Mcmillan (Schlumbergera orssichiana x Schlumbergera truncata); the S. Reginae group often displays significant amounts of white: February 2007: Nino Barbieri, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Orssich Brazilian Christmas cactus adds to cool weather-loving, high-altitude, moisture-tolerant Western Hemisphere cacti as one of four parents to cultivated hybrid relatives and as one of six of southeast Brazil's wild cactuses.

Orssich cacti bear branching, chlorophyll-rich, leafless, non-cylindrical, segmented stems in contrast to the barrel-bodied, bristly, drought-resistant, heat-tolerant, prickly, spiny cactuses that beautify North America's Old Southwest. Non-spherical shapes and non-tubular sizes compel the Orssich cactus's membership with four of coastal and near-coastal mountainous southeast Brazil's six high-altitude, wild species in flat-stemmed subgroups. Flat stems called cladodes drive Orssich cactus life cycles by drawing energizing, sugary photosynthates from chlorophyll- and sunlight-determined divisions of carbon dioxide and of water vapor.

Declining habitats and populations from firewood harvesters and illegal Orssich Brazilian Christmas cactus collectors exact endangered alerts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Variously shaped teeth fill the edges and ends of 1.97- to 2.95-inch- (5- to 7.5-centimeter-) long, 1.26- to 1.77-inch- (3.2- to 4.5-centimeter-) wide Orssich cactus segments.

Specialized structures called areoles along the edges and at the ends of stem segments grow buds and 3.54-inch- (9-centimeter-) long flowers 3.54 inches (9 centimeters) across. Pinkish, wide-open flowers hang somewhat vertically and have dark red styles, higher and lower sides in a slight radial asymmetry called zygomorphism and six-to eight-lobed styles. Inner, longer series of 20 to 30 red-tipped, undifferentiated, white-centered petals and sepals called tepals integrate fused bases into a nectar-filled, 0.39-inch- (10-millimeter-) long floral tube.

Orssich Brazilian Christmas cactus joins 5.59- to 6.6-inch- (5.5- to 6.5-centimeter-) long, white-filamented stamens with yellow pollen-filled anthers into base-fused inner and floral tube-juxtaposed outer series.

Orssich cactus knows as fruits five-angled to six-ribbed, fleshy, green-yellow to white, pulpy, succulent, 0.79-inch- (20-millimeter-) long, 0.63-inch- (16-millimeter-) broad berries, each with about 100 seeds.

Fruiting stages at 3,280.84- to 6,561.68-foot (1,000- to 2,000-meter) altitudes above sea level lead to dark brown, flat, semi-curved, 0.19-inch- (1.5-millimeter-) long, 0.04-inch- (1.5-millimeter-) broad seeds. Orssich cacti manage attention-getting displays with brown seeds, green stem segments with curled, reddish margins, green-yellow to green-white berries, magenta styles and yellow anthers and pollen. Cloud forests (matas de neblina) nourish flowering, fruiting and seeding stages of Orssich cactuses, described by German botanist Wilhelm A. Barthlott and English botanist A.J.S. McMillan.

Orssich Brazilian Christmas cactus occurs epiphytically on high-altitude trees, over a 463.32-square-mile (1,200-square-kilometer) area, in Serra do Mar and Serra da Bocaina's Morro dos Três Picos.

Historical records no longer preserve the discovery point in southeast Brazil's coastal states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo where Orssich cactus pulls endemic status.

Schlumbergera orssichiana, from French collector Frédéric Schlumberger (April 19, 1823-Feb. 21, 1893) and from Austrian discoverer, Julie Beatrix Aninger, Countess Orssich, qualifies as the scientific name. Countess Orssich's discovery remains best known as co-parent, respectively with Russell's cactus (Schlumbergera russelliana) and with truncated cactus (S. truncata), to the two cultivated hybrid "Queens." Schlumbergera x eprica, named by Frank Süpplie, and S. x reginae, named by A.J.S. McMillan, synthesize Orssich cactus's respective hybridizations with Russell's and with truncated cacti.

Collectors and harvesters threaten Orssich Brazilian Christmas cactus on cloud-forest tree homes even though naturalization-friendly Northern Hemisphere niches throng with its March-, August- and November-blooming hybrids.

Schlumbergera orssichiana grows natively in Parque dos Três Picos, Rio de Janeiro state, southwestern Brazil; Três Picos is the highest point in Rio de Janeiro's protected area mosaic, Central Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest Mosaic (Portuguese: Mosaico da Mata Atlântica Central Fluminense); Sunday, April 27, 2014, 10:56: Jorge Antonio de Oliveira Vicente, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Schlumbergera orssichiana is usually grown in hybrid form with other species, especially as the artificial hybrid Schlumbergera x reginae Mcmillan (Schlumbergera orssichiana x Schlumbergera truncata); the S. Reginae group often displays significant amounts of white: February 2007: Nino Barbieri, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:-_Schlumbergera_trunctata_-.jpg

Schlumbergera orssichiana grows natively in Parque dos Três Picos, Rio de Janeiro state, southwestern Brazil; Três Picos is the highest point in Rio de Janeiro's protected area mosaic, Central Rio de Janeiro Atlantic Forest Mosaic (Portuguese: Mosaico da Mata Atlântica Central Fluminense); Sunday, April 27, 2014, 10:56: Jorge Antonio de Oliveira Vicente, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parque_Dos_Tres_Picos.jpg

For further information:

Combernoux, Michel. "History of Schlumbergera orssichiana and Its Hybrids." Epiphytic Cacti. Available @ http://cactus-epiphytes.eu/z_page_histoire_schl_orss_et_hybrides_1.htm

McMillan, A.J.S.; and Horobin, J.F. 1995. Christmas Cacti: The Genus Schlumbergera and Its Hybrids. Sherbourne, Dorset: David Hunt.

Meier, Eckhard. "Die Schlumbergera Orssichiana Story." Re-published with permission from Kakblüte april 2006. CactusAndaluz > Schlumbergera > Botanishe Arten.
Available @ http://www.cactusandaluz.de/Text_OrssichianaStory.php

"Schlumbergera orssichiana." Encyclopedia of Life.
Available @ http://www.eol.org/pages/5184923/overview

"Schlumbergera orssichiana Barhlott & McMillan." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/100438720

"Schlumbergera orssichiana Barthlott & McMillan in Cact. Succ. J. (US) 50; 30 34 (1978)." Rhipsalis.com > Species.
Available @ http://rhipsalis.com/species/orchissiana.htm

Taylor, N.P.; and Zappi, D. 2013. "Schlumbergera orssichiana." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e. T151940A578806. http://dx.doi/org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T151940A578806.en.
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/151940/0

Microcylindrical Brazilian Christmas Cactus, Kin to Cultivated Hybrids

Summary: Hövel's and Schumann's microcylindrical Brazilian Christmas cactus, kin to cultivated hybrids, suffers from tourist traffic in southeast coastal Brazil.

illustration of Schlumbergera microsphaerica as Epiphyllanthus microsphaericus (Schumann); N. L. Britton and J.N. Rose, The Cactaceae (1923), vol. IV, plate 190, page 182: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Hövel's and Schumann's microcylindrical Brazilian Christmas cactus appears in three coastal and near-coastal mountainous southeast Brazilian states as the lesser known, remote and wild relative of four commercially successful, world-renowned cultivated hybrids.

The cylinder-stemmed cactus braves cool, high-altitude, humid habitats as part of the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest) vegetation in Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The southeast Brazilian niches challenge sustainable cylinder-stemmed cactus populations because of prime locations for exclusive residential properties and due to prioritized collections for ornamental plant specialists. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes microcylinder-stemmed Brazilian Christmas cacti as data deficient because most sustainable populations develop within three legally protected areas.

Microcylinder-stemmed Brazilian Christmas cactuses, with their exacting cultivational requirements, entice specialist collectors and exist epilithically on rocks and epiphytically on mata de neblina (cloud forest) trees.

Microcylinder-stemmed cactus, scientifically named Schlumbergera microsphaerica, for French collector Frédéric Schlumberger (April 19, 1823-Feb. 21, 1893) and for stem shapes and sizes, functions photosynthetically without foliage.

Mature microcylinder-stemmed cacti get branching, photosynthesis-capable stems with 0.6- to 1.6-inch- (1.52- to 4.06-centimeter-) long segments 0.08 to 0.19 inches (2 to 5 millimeters) in diameter. They have at the ends of all of their photosynthetic, spherical segments specialized bristly, spiny, spiraling structures called areoles that hold both cactus buds and flowers. Fuchsia, red or white flowers include six- to eight-lobed stigmas on dark red styles, two sets of stamens and 20 to 30 undifferentiated petals and sepals.

Hövel's and Schumann's microcylindrical Brazilian Christmas cactus joins the inner series of basally fused stamens into short tubular structures and the outer into nectar-filled floral tubes.

Undifferentiated petals and sepals called tepals keep inner, basally fused, longer series toward floral tips and outer, back-curved or spread-out, shorter, unconnected series near floral bases.

Mature, 0.59-inch- (1.5-centimeter-) long microcylinder-stemmed cactus flowers link their inner tepals into nectar-filled floral tubes, look regular in a radial symmetry called actinomorphism and lounge downward. Stigmas and styles together measure the same as their stamens in length and mean that, like Kautsky's Brazilian Christmas cactus, microcylinder-stemmed cacti are self-fertile and self-pollinating. Both Kautsky's and Hövel's and Schumann's Brazilian Christmas cacti need self-fertilization and self-pollination since pollinating hummingbirds never or rarely nestle into such high-altitude, remote habitat niches.

Hövel's and Schumann's microcylinder-stemmed Brazilian Christmas cactus offers fleshy, pulpy fruit after bloom times that occur in naturalization-friendly Northern Hemisphere habitat niches from March to April.

Microcylinder-stemmed cactus, scientifically described by German botanists Karl Möritz Schumann (June 17, 1851-March 22, 1904) in 1890 and Otto Hövel in 1970, produces fleshy green fruit.

Genetic diversity in the wild qualifies microcylinder-stemmed cactus fruit for one to five non-prominent ribs and for brown seeds each 0.39 inches (1 millimeter) in diameter. Microcylinder-stemmed cacti remain somewhat variable at 6,561.68 to 9,120.74 feet (2,000 to 2,780 meters) above sea level in Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Tourism stresses Espírito Santo's and Rio de Janeiro's Serra do Caparaó, Minas Gerais's Serra Brigadeiro, and Minas Gerais's and Rio de Janeiro's Pico das Agulhas Negras.

Hövel's and Schumann's microcylinder-stemmed Brazilian Christmas cactuses tackle cool, humid, remote high altitudes in three southeast Brazilian states that teem more and more with tourist traffic.

Pico das Agulhas Negras (Black Needles Park), which borders Brazil's southeast states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, claims native populations of microcylindrical Brazilian Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera microsphaerica); Sunday, May 15, 2016, 15:14: Daniel Francisco Madrigal Möller, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

illustration of Schlumbergera microsphaerica as Epiphyllanthus microsphaericus (Schumann); N. L. Britton and J.N. Rose, The Cactaceae (1923), vol. IV, plate 190, page 182: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32131210

Pico das Agulhas Negras (Black Needles Park), which borders Brazil's southeast states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, claims native populations of microcylindrical Brazilian Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera microsphaerica); Sunday, May 15, 2016, 15:14: Daniel Francisco Madrigal Möller, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lua_no_Pico_das_Agulhas_Negras_06.jpg

For further information:

Britton, N.L. (Nathaniel Lord); J.N. (Joseph Nelson) Rose. 1923. "2. Epiphyllanthus microsphaericus (Schumann)." The Cactaceae: Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants in the Cactus Family. Vol. IV: 181-182. Washington DC: The Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32131209

"Cereus microsphaericus K. Schum." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/5103681

"Epiphyllanthus microsphaericus (K. Schum.) Britton & Rose." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/50186413

Marriner, Derdriu. "The Kautsky Brazilian Christmas Cactus, Relative of Cultivated Hybrids." Earth and Space News. Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-kautsky-brazilian-christmas-cactus.html

McMillan, A.J.S.; and Horobin, J.F. 1995. Christmas Cacti: The Genus Schlumbergera and Its Hybrids. Sherbourne, Dorset: David Hunt.

"Schlumbergera microsphaerica - Christmas Cactus." Encyclopedia of Life.
Available @ http://eol.org/pages/5184917/hierarchy_entries/57218680/overview

"Schlumbergera microsphaerica Hoevel." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/100445723

"Schlumbergera microsphaerica (K. Schumann) Hovel in Kakt. and Sukk. 21: 186 (1970)." Rhipsalis.com.
Available @ http://www.rhipsalis.com/species/microspha.htm

Schumann, Karl Moritz. 1890. "1. Cereus microsphaericus K. Sch." In Martius, Carl (Karl) Friedrich Philipp von, Flora Brasiliensis, Vol. IV, Part II: 197.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/138722

Taylor, N.P.; and Zappi, D. 2013. "Schlumbergera microsphaerica." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e. T40874A2939473. http://dx.doi/org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T40874A2939473.en.
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/40874/0

The Kautsky Brazilian Christmas Cactus, Relative of Cultivated Hybrids

Summary: The Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus, remote, wild relative of cultivated hybrids, is endangered by collectors, cultivators, developers and extractors.

closeup of Schlumbergera kautskyi's flower; Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, 10:05: Sadambio, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

The Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus assumes a low-profile existence outside mountainous homelands in the coastal southeast Brazilian states of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais as the lesser known relative of cultivated hybrids.

Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cacti bear close ties to the four wild southeast Brazilian Christmas cactuses behind the cultivated hybrids that bedazzle the Northern Hemisphere's holiday plant-lovers. They claim non-overlapping homelands with micro-cylinder-like Brazilian Christmas cacti and with the cactus pad-like, Orsich's, Russell's and truncated Brazilian Christmas cactuses that contribute to commercialized cultivars. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes Brazilian Christmas cacti as endangered by habitat loss from land developers and population decline from specialty collectors.

Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus habitats at 2,952.76- to 4,265.09-foot (900- to 1,300-meter) altitudes above sea level entice eucalyptus tree cultivators, granite rock extractors and residential developers.

Collectors Frédéric Schlumberger (April 19, 1823-Feb. 18, 1893) and Roberto Anselmo Kautsky (May 23, 1924-May 25, 2010) furnish Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus' scientific name, Schlumbergera kautskyi.

Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactuses, given subspecies status by John F. Horobin and A.J.S. McMillan and then species status by Nigel Paul Taylor, grow epilithically (on rocks). They huddle predominantly on rocks, and rarely as epiphytes on semi-shaded trees, in cool, high-altitude south Atlantic forests humidified by condensation of moist, rising, warm air. Endemic incidence exclusively to two parks and nearby municipalities involves respectively estimated minimums and maximums under 3.86 and 193.05 square miles (10 and 500 square kilometers).

Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus populations jump from Minas Gerais's Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó (National Park of the Vine [Covered] Mountain Ridge) to Espírito Santo.

Espírito Santo keeps populations in Alfredo Chaves, Domingos Martins and São Bento de Urânia municipalities and in Parque Estadual da Pedra Azul (Blue Stone State Park).

Wild specimens look similar in both states, with flattened, green, leafless, photosynthetic, segmented stems called cladodes, sharp-toothed along the edges and truncated into cut-off, non-pointed ends. The 0.87- to 1.58-inch- (2.2- to 4.0-centimeter-) long, 0.55- to 0.98-inch- (1.4- to 2.5-centimeter-) wide stem segments maintain terminally brown wool and short bristles called areoles. Areoles nurture buds whose cyclamen-purple, 1.97-inch- (5-centimeter-) long flowers, 0.98 inches (2.5 centimeters) across, nod slightly above the horizontal into radially asymmetrical higher- and lower-sided zygomorphism.

The shorter, unconnected outer tepals of 20 to 30 undifferentiated petals and sepals occur toward the base and the fused, longer inner tepals toward the tips.

Self-fertilized flowers present inner stamens basally fused into tubes, outer stamens proliferating along inner tepal-formed, nectar-filled floral tubes and red styles with six- to eight-lobed stigmas.

Self-fertilization, without pollinating hummingbirds, quickens production of elongated, fleshy, four-angled, non-explosive, pulpy, red-tinged, sometimes ribbed, sometimes smooth, wildlife-friendly, yellow-green, 0.98-inch- (2.5-centimeter-) long, 0.75-inch- (1.9-centimeter-) wide fruits. Self-pollination results in the steady production of 150 very dark brown, 0.04-inch- (1-millimeter-) long and wide seeds by every fruit on a Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus. It separates Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cacti populations, whose remote mountainous homelands straggle at altitudes from which southeast Brazil's hummingbirds shy, from their cultivated and wild relatives.

Panoramic remoteness high up tempts collectors, eucalyptus plantation cultivators, granite rock extractors and residential developers and threatens the Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus, relative of cultivated hybrids.

Parque Estadual da Pedra Azul (Blue Stone State Park) claims native populations of Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera kautskyi); Domingos Martins, Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil; Monday, Sep. 4, 2006: Apgaua Moreno Furtado de Sousa, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

closeup of Schlumbergera kautskyi's flower; Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, 10:05: Sadambio, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fájl:Kautskyi.jpg

Parque Estadual da Pedra Azul (Blue Stone State Park) claims native populations of Kautsky Brazilian Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera kautskyi); Domingos Martins, Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil; Monday, Sep. 4, 2006: Apgaua Moreno Furtado de Sousa, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/apgaua/234168481/

For further information:

McMillan, A.J.S.; and Horobin, J.F. 1995. Christmas Cacti: The Genus Schlumbergera and Its Hybrids. Sherbourne, Dorset: David Hunt.

"Schlumbergera kautskyi (Horobin & McMillan) N.P. Taylor - Christmas Cactus." Encyclopedia of Life.
Available @ http://www.eol.org/pages/5184916/overview

"Schlumbergera kautskyi (Horobin & McMillan) N.P. Taylor." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/5108098

"Schlumbergera kautskyi (Horobin & McMillan) N.P. Taylor in Bradleya 9:90 (1991)." Rhipsalis.com.
Available @ http://rhipsalis.com/species/kautskyi.htm

Taylor, N.P.; and Zappi, D. 2013. "Schlumbergera kautskyi." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e. T40873A2939316. http://dx.doi/org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T40873A2939316.en.
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/40873/0