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Hatiora salicornoides
Also called Drunkard’s Dream, Spice Cactus
Dancing Bones Cactus is a branching epiphytic cactus with club-shaped segments, grown mainly as a houseplant or in greenhouses. Its key needs are bright shade, some humidity, and protection from frost and cold.
Hatiora salicornoides, also spelt Hatiora salicornioides, the bottle cactus, dancing-bones, drunkard's-dream, or spice cactus, is a species of flowering plant in the cactus family. A member of the tribe Rhipsalideae, it often grows as an epiphyte, natively in eastern Brazil and ornamentally elsewhere.
Hatiora salicornoides is grown as an ornamental plant. It requires some humidity, and is not frost-tolerant. Light shade and a minimum average temperature of 12 °C (54 °F) are recommended. Given these conditions, it has been successfully cultivated outside in Phoenix, Arizona. In climates with lower winter temperatures, it is cultivated in greenhouses or as a house plant. It is propagated by stem cuttings.
In the UK Hatiora salicornoides has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Hatiora salicornoides is found along the coast (and slightly inland) of the Southeast Region of Brazil, in states that are parallel to the Atlantic Ocean—although the plant is not typically found growing directly at sea level. Primarily, the species is known from the states of Bahia, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Paraná; cities and municipalities where it is known from include Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, São José dos Pinhais, and Tiradentes, among others; it may also be found in and around metro Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, where it grows naturally among tall trees, parks and landscaping. Additionally, a number of large botanic gardens and national parks are situated close to—or directly inside of—the city limits of Río de Janeiro and São Paulo, such as Tijuca National Park and the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, which help to provide a protected, natural habitat for these delicate epiphytic cacti in the middle of two of the planet's most densely populated megacities.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hatiora salicornoides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
