Taxonomy
The epithet truncata means "abruptly cut off", and refers to the shape of the ends of the stems.
The species was first properly named for science by Haworth in 1819 as Epiphyllum truncatum. His name was based on living specimens growing at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1818. (However these do not appear to have been preserved, so an illustration published by Hooker in 1822 was designated as the "neotype" by N.P. Taylor.) Like others in the genus, the species was transferred to Zygocactus by Schumann in 1890, and then to Schlumbergera by Moran in 1953. Some other names in the genus Epiphyllum are now considered to be synonyms of S. truncata.
Synonyms include:
- Cactus truncatus, nomen nudum
- Epiphyllum truncatum
- Cactus truncatus
- Cereus truncatus
- Zygocactus truncatus
- Epiphyllum altensteinii
- Zygocactus altensteinii
- Epiphyllum delicatum
- Zygocactus delicatum
- Epiphyllum ruckeri
Epiphyllum bridgesii, Schlumbergera bridgesii and Epiphyllum ruckerianum have sometimes been treated as synonyms of S. truncata, but are regarded by David Hunt as synonyms of the hybrid S. × buckleyi.
Read more about this topic: Schlumbergera Truncata