Schlumbergera microsphaerica (K.Schumann) Hovel in Kakt. and Sukk. 21: 186 (1970)
Plant -low, at first erect, much branched and more or less prostrate, growing under rocks and perhaps epiphytic on trees.
Joints - slender, terete or obtusely angled, somewhat spiny, or often naked.
Flowers - all terminal, purple to rose. (also white see "candidus" ynonym).
Type locality - Province of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
DISTRIBUTION. Brazil (Minas Gerais/Espirito Santo NW Rio de Janeiro): Serra do Capara6 and Serra do Itatiaia, epiphytic and epilithic in cloud forest, at 2200-2787 m altitude.
The name S. microsphaerica must be used in preference to the more familiar S. obtusangula. since the former, as Epiphyllanthus microsphaericus, was the name accepted by Bntton & Rose (1923: 181), the first authors to treat these two equally priorable names as synonyms
The very disjunct record for this species from Garuva in the state of Santa Catarina (Scheinvar 1985 359) should almost certainly be discounted. The specimen cited (Reitz 6744) could not be located at HBR or MEXU and if it still exists it will perhaps prove to be a misidentification of Hatiora rosea, which occurs at the same locality.