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Here’s how to see Christmas Cactus in the wild: first fly to Rio de Janeiro, then drive several hours to the Organ Mountain rainforests north of the city, and start hiking. But you won’t find them by looking down, or even eye level; to find a Christmas Cactus you must look up – way up. Scientists call them epiphytes: plants that live in trees. How the Schlumbergera (bless you!), came down from the trees and into our homes is almost as interesting as their mysterious life in the high canopy of the Brazilian rainforests.
The wily Schlumbergera share their extraterrestrial realm with some of the most exotic plants in the world including: orchids, bromeliads, and the night-blooming Cereus (which flowers with the cycles of the moon). While they live on another plant, don’t confuse epiphytes with parasites. Schlumbergera live in the crotches of trees where decaying leaves and organic matter collect. They root here, taking moisture from the air and whatever drains down the bark from above. By growing in treetops, they perch in places where the competition for light, therefore life, is less fierce.
Schlumbergera grow by producing flat, leaf-like stem segments. They lack spines, but, like all cacti, they are expert water storers; a waxy layer on the surface of their stems helps keep moisture in the plant. And like all epiphytes, they work hard to attract very specific pollinators: their tubular flowers are an essential food source for jewel-like rainforest hummingbirds.
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Some experts believe that Schlumbergera and their relatives are, evolutionarily speaking, the granddaddies of the ground dwelling plants we normally think of as cacti. They speculate that cacti came down from the trees some 20,000 years ago and started the long trek throughout South America and, eventually, hiking across the land bridge, they climbed up into Central and North America.
Alan Cunningham, a plant hunter for Kew Gardens, was the first man to bring these plants to the attention of western gardeners. On his first plant hunting voyage in 1816 he arrived in Rio de Janeiro and spent two years gathering specimens before returning to London. His next trip out was as a passenger aboard a prison ship headed for Australia. He spent thirty years exploring that continent before he died of tuberculosis in Sydney, leaving behind a legacy that includes two dozen places named by him and a dozen more named for him.
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Although descended from Brazilian parents, the Christmas Cactus itself was born in England. In 1840, nurseryman William Buckley crossed s. truncata and s. russelliana to produce s. x buckleyi. From that one original plant, all our countless millions of plants have since descended. About forty years ago, two additional crosses Buckley produced at his nursery in Tooting, England have been identified and preserved.
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