And so it's part seven of On the Ledge podcast's special week of short,

a mini episodes featuring trailing plants. And today is the turn of epiphilum anguuliger. Yes, the first challenge with the fishbone cactus is mastering

its Latin name. But let's start by breaking it down. The first bit epiphilum refers to the genus,

the plant family for this particular

plant, and the epiphilums are known as the forest cacti because they are cacti, but they grow in

forest. You guessed it. Now, they're called orchid cacti as well because the flowers, big and

dramatic and often coming up and blooming at night time,

look a bit like the gorgeous flowers of the orchid.

And anguliga?

Well, that means angle bearing, and that refers to the flattened stems, which have a zigzaggy pattern.

Some people call it Rickrack, which is, well, I had to actually look this one up, but Rickrack

is defined on Wikipedia as flat, narrow braid woven in zigzag form. So if you know what

Rickrack is, then you'll know what an epiphilum anguligastem looks like. These epiphytic plants

grow on trees in Central America, and when we're growing them in our

houses they do look best in a hanging pot or hanging from the ledge because they just flop over

if you try to grow them in a regular way. Likewise, well this one will cope with a bit of shade.

It doesn't need even bright light all the time and definitely keep it out of

direct sunlight at all times. I have to admit to having struggled to keep this plant happy in the

time I've had it, which is probably about two years now. I found the key to success was switching

over to a self-watering pot.

This way, the cactus got the regular moisture that it needed,

and I didn't have to worry about it drying out excessively.

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