Christmas cactus IMG 20250218 220222

Flowers from our Christmas cactus, which, true to form, skipped Christmas and decided to flower in mid-February instead. For most of the year it is a very unimpressive looking plant, but it produces these lunatic flowers. It blooms in response to shorter days and longer nights so growing indoors under house lights probably confuses its flowering cycle.

The parent of the Christmas Cactus, (or Schlumbergera), is from Brazil:-

Copied from Wikipedia "Schlumbergera truncata occurs only in a small area of the coastal mountains of south-east Brazil, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, located in the southernmost part of the tropics. Sites where it has been found include the Organ Mountains (Serra dos Órgãos) in the Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos and in the Serra do Mar near to the city of Rio de Janeiro. Plants grow at altitudes of 700–1,000 metres (2,300–3,300 ft). Because of their altitude and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, the coastal mountains have high humidity – warm moist air is forced upwards into higher, colder locations where it condenses. S. truncata usually grows on trees (epiphytic),[3] or on rocks (epilythic)."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumbergera_truncata