Luc Wyn, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF · observed growing wild

Disocactus ackermannii (Haw.) Ralf Bauer

Cactaceae

Climate known 1 photograph Other epiphyte

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Disocactus ackermannii commonly called red orchid cactus is an epiphytic cactus from tropical forests in the states of Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexico. In cultivation, it has been confused with Disocactus × jenkinsonii, a hybrid between D. phyllanthoides and D. speciosus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Disocactus ackermannii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Disocactus

Disocactus is a genus of epiphytic cacti in the tribe Hylocereeae found in Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It should not be confused with Discocactus, which is a different genus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Disocactus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family

Cactaceae

Described by

(Haw.) Ralf Bauer

Native to

Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast

Wild records

115 in range· 73 open

At a glance

Warmest month

23°C

Apr, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

1894mm/yr

12 wet months · peak Sep 326 mm (CHELSA)

Light

26–42DLI

mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)

In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Disocactus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1894 mm a year, wettest September at 326 mm, driest January at 42 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 3.9 °C habitat night).

Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Disocactus ackermannii var. ackermannii.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Disocactus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1445 mm of 1894 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.2 °C against a yearly mean of 16.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1894 mm a year, wettest September at 326 mm, driest January at 42 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1894 mm a year at the habitat, 1445 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 326 mm, driest January at 42 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1091 mm to 3121 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 3.9 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.9 °C, the absolute minimum 0.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.2 °C to 12.7 °C), warmest day 23.1 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 3.9 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Disocactus, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 10 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 81 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale

Figures by month

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	18 / 16–24	20 / 17–25	22 / 19–28	23 / 20–29	23 / 20–29	21 / 18–27	21 / 18–25	21 / 18–26	20 / 18–25	19 / 17–25	19 / 17–24	19 / 16–24
Night °C	9 / 5–13	9 / 6–13	10 / 7–15	12 / 8–16	13 / 10–18	14 / 10–18	13 / 10–18	13 / 10–18	13 / 10–18	12 / 9–16	10 / 7–15	9 / 6–14
Rain mm	42 / 11–73	42 / 12–80	43 / 11–71	66 / 24–108	121 / 67–180	311 / 212–458	314 / 201–520	304 / 191–529	326 / 216–526	190 / 84–344	81 / 21–166	54 / 9–109
DLI	28 / 24–35	33 / 29–39	39 / 35–44	42 / 38–46	41 / 38–44	35 / 31–38	36 / 33–39	35 / 32–38	31 / 28–33	30 / 27–33	28 / 25–33	26 / 23–33
RH %	62 / 54–68	60 / 53–67	59 / 51–65	60 / 51–65	64 / 57–67	68 / 63–71	67 / 63–72	67 / 64–72	70 / 66–73	68 / 63–71	65 / 58–68	63 / 55–69

Each figure is the median across the 81 grid cells holding the 115 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1460:1743 (16.975, -92.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 81 distinct grid cells holding the 115 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1460:1743 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.00_-93.125, lapse-corrected +811 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1846 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.

Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

NativeMexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast· introduced: Mexico Central

Kew's description“epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Map marker17.615, -96.544 · in the densest population, 74 records (64% of those in range)

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 115 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 73 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 8 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.

The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 115 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Disocactus ackermannii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

PLANTAS UTILIZADAS EN LA CELEBRACIÓN DE LA SEMANA SANTA EN ZAACHILA, OAXACA, MÉXICO

Rodolfo Solano, Gabriela Cruz Lustre, Aarón Martínez Feria, Luicita Lagunez-Rivera (2010) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)

First Report of brown Spot Disease Caused by Neoscytalidium dimidiatum on Disocactus ackermannii in Guangxi of China

Shanyu Lin, Xiaohang Chen, Ling Xie, Yanyan Long (2025) · Plant Disease

Occurrence Download