Schlumbergera buckleyi

Botanical poem about a hybrid variety of Christmas Cactus.

Schlumbergera buckleyi


Schlumbergera buckleyi,
Brazilian you may be,
but Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving,
you’ve got family representing,
plucked from high in jungle-growing trees.

Your stems resemble leaf-like pads,
you’re classified as epiphytic.
Flowers, pinkish, red, or white,
form aureoles in winter light
to soften any moss or lichen critic.

Sisters share your balconies,
Reginae and Nicole.
You populate by propagation
and by simple pollination --
cherry-red, your seeds spread bird-to-bowl.

Hybrid Schlum, you dislike frost
and favor lighting indirect;
And though your segments may be fragile,
their recovery is agile,
placed in pots of sandy soil, erect.