| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Climbing cactus.
Including Phyllocactus Link, Phyllocereus Miq.
The plants cerioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems not spiny. The plants epiphytic (mostly), or climbing, or lithophytic; producing aerial roots; branched; usually with cladodes. The cladodes with midribs (usually), or without midribs. The plants erect, or pendent; shrubby; to 1 m high (rarely, when erect - the branches of other forms to several metres long). The branches differing in form from the main stem, or resembling the main stem (the old stems often woody and more or less cylindrical at the base). The main stem remaining dominant, or not remaining dominant. The branches flattened, or angled (usually flattened, leaflike or 3-winged, with a stout midrib and crenate, serrate or lacerate margins). The stems segmented; not annually articulating; not ribbed and grooved. The plants conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate (i.e., depending on interpretation of the margins). The tubercles borne along the margins of the flattened branches. The areoles distant; borne along the margins of the flattened branches; simple (axillary to the crenations, etc.); woolly (when young); without glochids; without spines. The mature stems with much reduced leaves. Leaves of mature stems minute; membranous (scales).
Flowering at night. The flowers lateral; one per areole; funnelform, or salver-shaped, the perianth limb broad (the perianth spreading to rotate); sessile; large; 10–30 cm long; fragrant, or odourless; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium. The pericarpel with small scales, rarely with hairs or bristles. The hypanthial tube slender, elongate, often very much so; not naked; with scales (those around the ovary approximate, small and triangular, the ones above larger, lanceolate, decurrent). The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube more or less naked, or not naked (sometimes arreolate with hairs or bristles). The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth sequentially intergrading from sepals to petals, or of ‘tepals’; white, or cream, or pink (the inner members usually white, the outer sometimes creamy or pinkish). The perianth segments spreading; elongate, relatively narrow, or relatively short, broad ((at least the distal ones)); pointed, or apiculate. Stamens numerous; adnate to the perianth; exserted beyond the perianth; not grouped (inserted in the tube and around the throat). Gynoecium inferior (the style elongated, with the numerous, linear stigma lobes exserted).
The mature fruit 4–9 cm long; ovoid, or ellipsoidal; red to purple; not naked (with small scales and areoles); somewhat ridged, without spines; without persistent floral remains; fleshy to non-fleshy when mature; usually dehiscent; dehiscing vertically by one slit ("ultimately splitting along one side"). The seeds black; ovoid, or reniform; numerous, with pulpy funicles, not encased in bony arils; with hilum and micropyle fused; with a mucilage sheath. The testa shiny; minutely rugose, or spotted. Embryo strongly curved. Cotyledons foliaceous (flat and fleshy).
Natural Distribution. Central America, Mexico, Northern South America and Caribbean.
Classification. About 20 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Hylocereeae.
Cf. Hunt, 1967.
Images. • Epiphyllum crenatum: © Zoya Akulova (2018). • Epiphyllum anguliger (as E. darrahii): Britton & Rose (1923). • cf. Epiphyllum costaricensis (as Macropterum): Britton & Rose (1923). • cf. Epiphyllum gaertneri: Bot. Mag. 117 (1891). • ‘Epiphyllum coccineum’, with Pereskia grandiflora (Pfeiff) and ‘Rhipsalis sp.’: Le Maout and Decaisne (1873).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2018 onwards. The genera of Cactaceae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th November 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
