HOLIDAY CACTI

摘要

If they weren't so common, we'd all be transfixed by these stunning plants, but alas, familiarity still breeds contempt, even when it comes to plants. Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti are rainforest cacti from Brazil in the genus Schlumbergera (formerly Zygocactus). They were introduced into Europe in the early 19th century by Allan Cunningham, a collector for Kew Gardens. In 1858 this genus was named after Frederic Schlumberger, a French collector of cacti. There are six species, but most are now rare in cultivation. Most of the plants we grow in our homes are hybrids. Christmas cactus is an interspecific hybrid of S. truncata and S. russelliana with ribbed ovaries and purplish brown anthers. The Thanksgiving cactus was originally S. truncata. It flowers about six weeks earlier than the Christmas cactus. Most notably, it has rounded ovaries without ribs and yellow anthers. It used to be fairly simple to tell the difference between a Thanksgiving and a Christmas Cactus, but there has been so much crossbreeding of the two that many holiday cacti show intermediate characteristics.