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Rhipsalis baccifera subs. shaferi (Britton & Rose) Barthlott & N.P.Taylor

Family: CACTACEAE · Variety or form of Rhipsalis baccifera

Publication: Bradleya 13: 64 1995

Description

Rhipsalis baccifera subs. shaferi is a tropical evergreen but leafless, succulent, epiphytic plant with thin hanging stems. Although a member of the cactus family, it has a very different appearence and is spineless. Subspecies schaferi distingushes for its generally shorter, stiffer stem-segments than subsp. baccifera, with which it intergrades. Subspecies schaferi, should be treated as a good species ( Korotkova 2011). It is commonly known as the mistletoe cactus.

Derivation of specific name: shaferi For John A. Shafer (1863–1918), USAmerican botanist, pharmacist and plant collector, esp. in the West Indies, collected 1916–1917 cacti for the US-American botanists N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose in South America.

Stems: At first stiff, erect or ascending, later spreading or pendent, 4 to 5 mm thick, terete, green or with purplish tips and sometimes at areoles. Juvenile and lower branches often with several bristles at areoles; upper branches without or with a single appressed one; scales subtending the areoles small but broad

Flowers: Numerous, white or greenish-white, patent, scattered all along side of branch, solitary (rarely in pairs) at areoles, small, rotate, 8 to 10 mm broad; petals 5 or 6, short-oblong, obtuse; filaments greenish, erect; stigma-lobes 4, white; ovary not sunken in branch. Pericarpel not immersed in the areole.

Fruits: Small, globose, 2 to 3 mm in diameter, white or sometimes tinged with pink.

Chromosome number: 2n = 22.

Origin and Habitat

Paraguay, southern Bolivia, Brazil and northern Argentina.

Habitat and Ecology: Rhipsalis baccifera subs. shaferi is an epiphytic or saxicolous cactus, usualty growing on trunk or branches of large trees, hanging in large clusters in a wide variety of habitats comprising low and medium elevation forests, rain forest, riverine forests and mangrove tidal swamp. It also grows in humus on shady rocks. It is usually abundant where it occurs. The fruits attract birds, that spread the seeds, so the species can reproduce easy and fast, taking over trees in a large area. It is likely to be affected by a number of minor threats. However, none of these threats is significant enough to warrant any concern.

Cultivation and Propagation

Rhipsalis baccifera subs. shaferi is among the easiest to cultivate epiphytic cacti and tolerates neglect. These forest cacti tend to be long lived.

Exposure: This plant (as with all Rhipsalis) prefers partial shade.

Watering: It requires ample summer water (more than other cacti), but allow soil to dry slightly between waterings.

Soil: These cacti won’t want a normal cactus soil but will prefer to be in a soil largely composed of organic material, such as peat or sphagnum moss, This type of soil would normally be used for orchids, bromeliads or other epiphytic plants.

These forest cacti tend to be long lived.

Hardiness: Frost tender. It needs night-time temperatures no cooler than 5° C, especially in the winter.

Special requirements: These plants bloom profusely if grown in an even, high temperature, but significantly less if the temperature fluctuates between 4°C and 18°C. They drop their buds easily if they are moved. Once flower buds have formed, do not move the plant, as slight changes in environment may cause the buds to drop.

Propagation: Stem cuttings.

Bibliography

Major references and further lectures

  1. N. L. Britton, J. N. Rose: “The Cactaceae. Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family.” Volume 4, The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 4: 7. 1923 [24 Dec 1923]

  2. Clive Innes “Complete Handbook of Cacti and Succulents” Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 01 December 1981

  3. Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton “Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names” Springer Science & Business Media, 29 June 2013

  4. Rhipsalis “Rhipsalis shaferi Britton & Rose” <http://rhipsalis.com/species/baccifera\_shaferi.htm\> Downloaded on 09 December 2015.

  5. Nadja Korotkova “Phylogeny and evolution of the epiphytic Rhipsalideae (Cactaceae)” Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades (Dr. rer. nat.) der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Juni 2011

  6. Edward Anderson “The Cactus family” Timber Press, Incorporated, 2001

  7. Alice Calvente “A New Subgeneric Classification of Rhipsalis (Cactoideae, Cactaceae)” Systematic Botany (2012), 37(4): pp. 983–988

  8. Arreola, H., Hammel, B., Hilton-Taylor, C., Ishiki, M., Loaiza, C., Nassar, J., Oakley, L., Pin, A., Taylor, N.P., Terrazas, T. & Zappi, D. 2013. Rhipsalis baccifera. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T62378A3114245. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T62378A3114245.en. Downloaded on 10 December 2015.

  9. Hunt, D., Taylor, N. and Charles, G. “The New Cactus Lexicon”. dh Books, Milborne Port, UK. 2006