The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Schlumbergera
Also called Tracheophytes
Schlumbergera is a small genus of epiphytic cacti from the coastal mountains of southeast Brazil, grown as the Christmas, Thanksgiving and holiday cacti. The key to growing them is bright but filtered light, humid conditions, and a cool period in autumn to trigger flowering.
Schlumbergera is a small genus of cacti with six to nine species native to the coastal mountains of southeastern Brazil. These plants grow on trees or rocks in habitats that are generally shady with high humidity, and can be quite different in appearance from their desert-dwelling cousins. Most species of Schlumbergera have stems which resemble leaf-like pads joined one to the other and flowers which appear from areoles at the joints and tips of the stems. Two species have cylindrical stems more similar to other cacti.
Common names for these cacti generally refer to their flowering season. In the Northern Hemisphere, they are called Christmas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus, crab cactus and holiday cactus. In Brazil, the genus is referred to as Flor de Maio ("May flower"), reflecting the period in which they flower in the Southern Hemisphere.
Schlumbergera occurs only in the coastal mountains of south-east Brazil, in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo. Its observed range extends from close to the Tropic of Capricorn northwards to 20°S. I.e. in the southernmost part of the tropics. Plants grow at altitudes from 700 metres (2,300 ft) in the case of S. truncata to 2,780 metres (9,120 ft) in the case of S. microsphaerica, either in the coastal moist forests or in rocky areas. The natural distribution of Schlumbergera species has become confused because European cultivars were deliberately introduced into some areas, including the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, by the Brazilian Agricultural Department, to compensate for over-collecting of wild plants.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Schlumbergera 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.
