Schlumbergera truncata (Haw.) Moran
Crab Cactus, False Christmas Cactus, Thanksgiving Cactus, Thanksgiving cactus
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
Schlumbergera truncata, the false Christmas cactus, is a species of plant in the family Cactaceae. It is endemic to a small area of the coastal mountains of south-eastern Brazil where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist forests. It is the parent or one of the parents of the houseplants called Christmas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus or zygocactus, among other names.
Text from Wikipedia, “Schlumbergera truncata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Schlumbergera
Schlumbergera is a small genus of cacti with six to nine species native to the coastal mountains of southeastern Brazil. These plants grow on trees or rocks in habitats that are generally shady with high humidity, and can be quite different in appearance from their desert-dwelling cousins. Most species of Schlumbergera have stems which resemble leaf-like pads joined one to the other and flowers which appear from areoles at the joints and tips of the stems. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Schlumbergera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Cactus truncatus (Haw.) Link; Cereus truncatus (Haw.) Sweet; Cereus truncatus var. altensteinii Salm-Dyck; Epiphyllum altensteinii Pfeiff.; Epiphyllum delicatum N.E.Br. and 24 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Schlumbergera, 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, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).
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 (1392 mm of 1849 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.4 °C against a yearly mean of 20.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.
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 1849 mm a year, wettest January at 299 mm, driest July at 47 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1849 mm a year at the habitat, 1392 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 299 mm, driest July at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1432 mm to 2348 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 22 to 37 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 37 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).
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 7.3 °C habitat night).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.3 °C, the absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 9.1 °C to 16.3 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in February (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 7.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Schlumbergera, 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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 23–30 | 28 / 24–30 | 27 / 23–29 | 25 / 21–28 | 23 / 19–26 | 22 / 18–25 | 22 / 18–25 | 23 / 19–26 | 24 / 19–27 | 25 / 21–28 | 26 / 21–28 | 26 / 22–29 |
| Night °C | 19 / 16–23 | 19 / 16–23 | 19 / 15–23 | 17 / 14–21 | 15 / 11–19 | 13 / 10–17 | 13 / 9–16 | 13 / 10–17 | 15 / 11–18 | 16 / 13–20 | 17 / 14–21 | 19 / 15–22 |
| Rain mm | 299 / 224–374 | 209 / 157–264 | 226 / 157–292 | 133 / 82–166 | 77 / 57–102 | 52 / 38–65 | 47 / 32–61 | 49 / 30–64 | 99 / 74–131 | 137 / 117–180 | 231 / 148–285 | 290 / 203–409 |
| DLI | 36 / 34–38 | 37 / 36–39 | 32 / 31–34 | 28 / 26–31 | 23 / 21–25 | 22 / 19–24 | 23 / 20–25 | 27 / 24–31 | 28 / 26–34 | 32 / 30–37 | 34 / 31–39 | 35 / 32–38 |
| RH % | 66 / 63–68 | 65 / 62–67 | 67 / 63–69 | 66 / 61–68 | 65 / 60–67 | 63 / 58–65 | 62 / 56–64 | 61 / 54–64 | 64 / 56–67 | 66 / 59–68 | 67 / 61–70 | 66 / 62–70 |
Each figure is the median across the 29 grid cells holding the 36 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 2252:2656 (-22.625, -47.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.2 °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 29 distinct grid cells holding the 36 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2252:2656 (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 -22.50_-46.875, lapse-corrected -148 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 587 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Victor Farjalla Pontes, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); (c) Pablo Cauã da Silva Toledo, some rights reserved (CC BY).
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 Schlumbergera truncata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Pleroma granulosum Brazilian Glorytree
Erythrina speciosa Coral tree
Salvia splendens Scarlet Sage
Pachira glabra French-peanut
Aphelandra squarrosa Zebra-plantHistory & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








