Germination inside the fruit
Cota-Sánchez and Abreu observed six Epiphyllum phyllanthus plants in a small fragment of the Atlantic Forest on the University of São Paulo campus. Four fruits came from three plants. The two older fruits contained seedlings developing before seed release. The authors classified this phenomenon as cryptovivipary. [Cota-Sánchez and Abreu 2007, pp.3866–3868, tabela1]
Seedlings emerged through the naturally opening area of the fruit. They possessed developed cotyledons and roots, and their subsequent morphology followed the development of plants raised by ordinary germination. The viviparous fruit provided an initial stage of offspring development within maternal tissues. [Cota-Sánchez and Abreu 2007, pp.3867–3869, Fig.1]
The first weeks of life
Seedlings from a single seven-week-old fruit were used to compare substrates. Groups of 29 plants were placed on tree bark near the parent, on the ground beside the tree and in sterile soil under controlled conditions. Mortality was highest during the first week. This small dataset illustrates the importance of seedling establishment after release from the fruit. [Cota-Sánchez and Abreu 2007, pp.3866–3869, Fig.2]
Almeida and colleagues described successive stages of seedling structure and the vascular system of the root, hypocotyl, cotyledons and epicotyl. Large green cotyledons develop, followed by adventitious roots and a flattened photosynthetic stem. Mucilage associated with the seed surface and the structure of young organs contribute to establishment in epiphytic habitats. [Almeida et al. 2013, pp.196–214, Results and Discussion]
Light and stem growth
Chaves and colleagues studied plants from Alfenas, Brazil, for 60 days. They compared full sun with nets providing 35%, 75% and 85% shade. The plants received no supplementary water or nutrients. Plants in full sun died within 30 days, whereas 85% shade produced the greatest fresh and dry stem mass. [Chaves et al. 2022, pp.40–43, metody and Results]
Flattened stem thickness increased with shade. The anatomy included a thin cuticle, photosynthetic tissue and water-storage parenchyma. The results describe plants of a particular provenance in a seasonal Brazilian experiment. In cultivation, light, water supply and temperature need to be considered together because the experiment combined radiation exposure with the absence of supplementary watering. [Chaves et al. 2022, pp.41–47]
Light triggering germination
Simão, Nakamura and Takaki studied Epiphyllum phyllanthus seeds at different temperatures and under different lighting treatments. The material germinated across a broad temperature range, with complete germination recorded at 15–30°C. Seeds responded even to the dim green light used during assessment. This was associated with a very-low-fluence phytochrome response. Some seeds also germinated in complete darkness, which the authors related to the initial proportion of active phytochrome. [Simão et al. 2010, pp.115–119, methods and results]
Related articles
Materials from the author's archive
The species also appears in Konrad Szychowski's private material archive. [Schumann 1890, file p. 23, 24, 62]