WI>>Remembering that these cacti are not desert dwellers
WI>>(which is what most of think of when we think of "cactus") but rather,
WI>> tropicals (rhipsalidopsis/Easter, Zyogcactus/Thanksgiving, or
WI>> Schlumbergera/Christmas) are all epiphytes (tree crotch dwellers)
WI>> from the tropical forests of S. Am.
 CG> ... Saturday morning and I'll bite:
 CG> I think of the tropics as wet and humid. Why are there cactii in 
izona?
The tropics *are*... and cactii *do* grow in Arizona, but not the ones in 
discussion *here*... (in this thread...   :)
 CG> I think of cactii as "succulents", which I always took to mean "storing 
moisture
 CG> in the leaves". Why would a succulent do that in the tropics?
You ask a question that I don't really have an answer for, (tho I'm sure I've 
read the answer at some point in time... it escapes me, at this moment...   
:)  except that, perhaps because they *do* live in the cracks and crevices of 
trees, they don't really have much root system to draw water.. and certainly, 
they don't have much "soil" to draw soil moisture from.  In many cases, (at 
least in these cases,) the leaf and stem have become one; again, perhaps to 
conserve moisture.  All I know is that they are *not* desert cactii and won't 
tolerate being grown as such.  Neither will, say the Saguro tolerate the same 
conditions that the Schlumbergia will.
 CG> By desert you meant "hot desert" as in Arizona, right? Not cold desert 
as in
 CG> Antarctica, or certain parts of Chile.
That's right.
 CG> Is an epiphyte any tree-dweller, including the Bromeliads I purchased 
last week,
 CG> which just so happen to be succulent tree- crotch dwellers from South 
America?
You got it!  :)
 CG> All these questions posed not as pot-stirrers, but from one prompted to 
express
 CG> curiosity during this recent phase of plant- growing activity in the 
home.
I'm familiar with "pot-stirrers" and didn't take you as one... (well, perhaps 
a little, but always "tongue-in-cheek"   :)
As I have shared for many years, now... not all succulents are cactii, but 
all cactii are succulents.  Likewise, all orchids are bromeliads, but not all 
bromeliads are orchids.  Now, not all epiphytes are either!  (Now, how's 
*that* for confusion?   :)  If a plant (no matter *what* it is,) ... if it 
lives in a tree, we call it "epiphyte" (and it may not be either of the ones 
we've discussed... it *could* be a fern, as in the "Staghorn"!  :)  but if 
grows in soil, in the ground, we call it "teresterial".
Hope his helps... didn't mean to make things worse.   :0  It *does* however, 
help, when one can understand the conditions that something *came* out of...
cheers,
WL Sakowski
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