Here's another good informational link: http://rhipsalis.com/index.html
Blessings,
Awanda
Epiphyllum blooming
Thanks Awanda.
Wow thanks to all of you for your persistence in trying to id this plant.
Did you ever get an ID on this plant? I got one that I'm almost sure is the same plant at a Car Boot Sale about 6 months ago without a name, but I have tentatively IDed it as Rhipsalis houlletiana.
Here is a close-up picture of mine, with a fruit! It had many many flowers, but so far only the one fruit.
No, I never did send a piece of it to that collector to get a positive ID. It's cool that your plant produced that fruit, it is something I never thought to look for on mine. More of mine is kind of hidden than is exposed so I will check to see if I missed one. Is your fruit from the last blooming period? Did you save it, cut it open, or do anything with it? I would guess it would have seeds. In the jungle a bird or a monkey would eat it and deposit the seeds somewhere which would sprout and produce a new plant.
if you join epiforum.com ( no cost) you will probably get ID's for your plants.
Hey MaryE,
That fruit is still on the plant! That is a very recent photo. I plan to plant the seed(s) but at the moment we are having 40 F overnight lows and daytime temps are only reaching about 60 F, so I think I might save the seed until spring and some warmer weather. Given that it's a central american epiphyte, I don't think our current winter weather would be too kind to tiny seedlings.
My plant was in pretty ratty shape when I purchased it - sunburned, dead ends & broken stems - my mother was with me that day and said "What do you want that ugly thing for?" but I knew it was something interesting, and it only cost me AU $4! The plant just keeps on flowering in flushes about 4 to 6 weeks apart - I can't work out if I made it happy by repotting it and it is "thanking" me, or if I scared it and it thinks it is going to die! Hopefully the former as it seems pretty healthy. Given the amount of flowers it has had, I thought one pod was a bit stingy, but I guess it lacks a suitable native pollinator here in Australia. When the next flush of flowers is open I will attack them with a small paint brush and see if I can up the fruit set.
Here's an update: I now have TWO fruits! The first one is now a much darker magenta pink/red colour but still very firm and not willing to come off the stem, and the second one looks much like the first one did a month ago. In addition I now have quite a few flowers which look like they may set fruit as they have not dropped away from the plant like the earlier ones did. Perhaps it was the exceptionally cold weather we have been having this winter which was preventing fruit set. I'm not too worried about getting the seeds out yet, since there is still a month of winter to go and it is far too cold to start any cacti seeds, let alone one from these tropical type plants. I'll keep you posted when I have further developments. Kaelkitty.