Description:
The Epiphyllum is known and cultivated for its beautiful and fragrant flower, which opens and closes in a single night. The common names "Night-Blooming Cereus" and "Queen of the Night" both refer to several different cacti. "Orchid Cactus" is also a common name for Epiphyllum.
Epiphyllum literally means "Upon the leaf", in reference to their habit of growing in the crowns of tall rainforest trees.
They share this unique habitat with other epiphytes, such as orchids and bromeliads, and serve as a home to all manner of small vertebrates and invertebrates. Long stems("runners") can snake through the forest canopy, producing flattened blade-like "leaves" along their length. If served, the runners have the ability to form new independent plants, provided some portion of them is gripping the host tree(and there is adequate moisture and nutrients).
Epiphyllums are very easy to grow. Propagation is primarily by vegetative cuttings, though new bybrids are produced from seed. Some people don't initially recognize epiphyllums as cacti because they lack the formidable arrays of spines often encountered in that family.
In the Republic of China, there, halfway around the world, the annual blossoming of the broad-leafed Epiphyllum brought together men and women who lived side by side and on top of one another.
