Stunning night flower - any ideas?

[whitewind]

Labelled 'Epiphyllum' but has narrow, 3-ribbed stems. The flower is about as large as my outstretched hand from thumb to little finger.

[qualia]

*squeeeeeeeee*

[Sallubrious]

I was going suggest Hylocerus, but it doesn't quite fit the bill.

[Mr. Bowser]

Looks kinda like a selenicereus flower to me, but the stem looks very much like a hylocereus. I wonder if hybrids between the two are possible.

[shortly]

I have a several different Epi's that swing back & forth between the 2 growth forms, sometimes on the same stem, i just put it down to environmental factors.

[Stillman]

Looks like the big old Night queen flower to me?

Epiphyllum oxypetalum ( I know it can't be but I bet there is some of its genetics amongst it). Apparently they interbreed shockingly. We have a heap of different species all next to each other and pods on everything. From my understanding none are self fertile so I image I will have some interesting Hybrid seed in a month or so.

Edited November 9, 2012 by Stillman

[whitewind]

This is a wild collected plant from South America so if is a hybrid it is a natural one. I haven't seen any other type of growth form on that plant, although I have seen other Epi's change growth habit a bit. It's not setting any fruit, sadly.

[Jox]

Hey whitewind,

That looks a lot like selenicereus megalanthus (yellow dragon fruit), the stems, flowers location were it was collected all fit.

HURRY UP & FRUIT!!!

[whitewind]

Won't self! No fruit set. The stems don't quite look like dragonfruit, softer but fuller in cross-section (as in properly triangular), much narrower (about 1cm across) and no spines at the nodes.

[Jox]

Can you get more photos of the plant?

S. megalanthus can be quit variable, I have cuttings here that look very similar to yours & I'm positive of there ID because we ate the fruit the same day I took the cuttings. Need to see more pics, I will take some on in a couple of days & put them up here for you to compere.

Cheers

jox

[whitewind]

Cactus flowers get me off ! Alright Jox I will try and get some close-ups it may take a couple of days. All the flowers come in waves, last time I saw it there was nothing.

[zelly]

It's definitely not a selenicereus megalanthus, pictured below:

with greenish sepals & skinny white petals, it looks somewhat like a hylocereus minutiflorus or hylocereus escuintlensis, both pictured in The New Cactus Lexicon, 2006 Edition

Pics of the floral tube would help

[Jox]

Sorry! Bad call on the flower , my apologies.

[whitewind]

Eek it caught me by surprise today, went to take some cutting and caught my hand on an old dead flower, covered in spines. I didn't think Epi's had spiny fruit - maybe that will help with the ID?

[whitewind]

So, like, does the vestigial spination on some rainforest cacti mean that they are more recently developed species, or did the whole desert cacti thing evolve as an offshoot from plants which already produced spines for protecting the fruit and some species stems? I reckon it's the former, is there any written research done on this already, anyone know?