They are green, ovoid and about 1 ½ inches (3–4 cm) thick. They take months to ripen 6 months or more. I’ve never taken the time to hand pollinate the flowers, but inevitably a few fruits form after each flowering. Delicious Fruit The fruits are small and none too impressive… until you taste one! Photo: Most are produced simultaneously although a few may be a day or two ahead of or behind the others. They fade at the beginning of the next day. It’s my wife’s favorite perfume and if you could put it in a bottle, you’d probably make a fortune! Of course, in nature, the perfume isn’t designed to attract humans, but rather to draw moths, the plant’s main pollinators, from afar.Īlthough I keep reading that the flowers last only one night, in my house, they last two, staying open the day in between, although odorless during the daylight hours. It takes only one to perfume the entire room and several together are enough that you can smell the bloom throughout the house. The blooms are strongly and deliciously scented, but only at night. As pretty as the flowers are, the perfume will impress you more! Photo: At about 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, they are smaller than most other orchid cactus, but proportionate to the size of the plant. The bloom starts as a tube up to 8 inches (20 cm) long that opens into a cup-shaped pure white flower with pale yellow or orangey outer “petals” (actually sepals). The flowers are borne from tiny areoles (cushiony white growths) at the base of the stem’s teeth.

But by the time the plant is 3 years old or so (and that’s young for a Epiphyllum), it will begin to bloom, usually in the late fall, then sometimes a second time months later. There is no mention of the spectacular flowers to come. When you’re sold a “zigzag cactus”, it’s generally a pot of rooted cuttings and you buy it for its attractive and unusual form. Gorgeous Flowers Spectacular, scented and short-lived blooms. In your home, their only purpose is to make you ask questions. In the wild, the plant uses them to root onto other tree branches and thus spread. Secondly, you may also see aerial roots growing underneath the stem when the humidity is high. First, unlike most other cactus, the zigzag cactus is spineless. The branches arch out from the base of the plant, then a down, making it a good choice for hanging baskets. It’s an epiphyte: it grows on tree branches, way up near the crown of the tree. anguliger is from Mexico, where it grows in evergreen oak forests in mountains along the Pacific coast, but not on the ground. Origin Can’t you just imagine this plant dangling from a tree in Mexico? Photo: Į. A lot of people mistake the broad, flat stems for leaves, but the only leaves this plant ever produces are the first two leaves (cotyledons) of its seedlings and they’re long gone by the time you pick up a plant at the nursery. The stems are green (although older stems can become woody and brown at the base) and carry out the plant’s photosynthesis, since, like most cactus, it has no leaves. Only a germination does the zigzag cactus have leaves: its cotyledons. The lobes are also the origin of the plant’s name: anguliger means “angle bearing”. It’s obvious where it gets its common name! Its stems are very curious: flattened, yet succulent, they are deeply and alternately toothed, giving the stem a zigzag appearance. Very odd stems indeed! Some people even mistake this cactus for a fern! Photo:

Still, this is small for an “orchid cactus” (the common name used for cactus of the genus Epiphyllum and their relatives) many orchid cactus have individual branches that measure over 6 feet (2 m) long! The smaller size of the zigzag cactus makes is a more convenient houseplant than some of its rangy cousins. However, it will turn out to be more medium-sized than mini, with the whole plant eventually reaching about 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 cm) in diameter. You may also see it labeled “mini fishbone cactus”. A pot of young cuttings like this may look mini, but your zigzag cactus will eventually become quite sizeable.

Photo: .ukĬertainly one of the strangest looking cactus, the zigzag cactus or fishbone cactus, Epiphyllum anguliger, now more correctly Disocactus anguliger, has been around for years, but suddenly seems to be catching on in a big way. A young zigzag cactus, whose stems are just starting to arch down.

Zigzag plant succulent