Plant of the Cactaceae plant family `Santa Cruz`

#The invention relates to a new and distinct plant variety of the Cactaceae family and which has been named the Zygocactus truncatus `Santa Cruz` by the inventors.

#Certain plant varieties of the Cactaceae family are well known in the foliage plant market and among these are those which are commonly referred to as the Christmas Cactus varieties because they tend to bloom during the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season in the northern hemisphere.

#The Christmas Cactus varieties on the market have blooms which vary in color from one variety to the next as is evident from the current U.S. patent art. One of the more popular varieties sold commercially in the market place is the variety that has been named Zygocactus truncatus `Twilight Tangerine`. This variety has a bloom that is salmon color and it represents an improvement on one of its predecessor varieties known as "Christmas Cheer". "Twilight Tangerine" forms the subject matter of U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,200 and the relationship between it and "Christmas Cheer" is set forth therein.

#The accompanaying drawings serve by color photographic means to illustrate the new plant variety and wherein one sheet show a nine (9) month old specimen which was grown from the propagation of a single phylloclade in a conventional 3 in. pot found in the marketplace. A second sheet shows an enlargement of a fully open bloom taken from the specimen shown in the first mentioned sheet. Still another sheet shows the fully open bloom illustrated in the second sheet together with a bloom as sectioned generally longitudinally through the perianth tube and ovary to expose the style and stamen arrangement. The last sheet show four plant parts that include phyllocades taken from a specimen of the new variety, each plant part having one or more attached buds or blooms to illustrate the flowers in progressive stages of maturity.

#The following is a detailed description of the new plant variety with colors and hues, unless otherwise clearly indicated by the text, as, for example, through the absence of color notations, being used in accord with the ISCC-NBS Method of Designating Colors (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards, Circular 553), the named colors being interpreted from color notations derived by comparison with color specimens of the Munsell Book of Color. The description is further based on observations of well fertilized plants about one year old from initial propagation and which are grown under 50-75% shaded glasshouse nursery conditions in the Winter Garden, Fla. area and wherein temperatures range from 60.degree.-85.degree. F. during the winter months, from 75.degree.-95.degree. F. during the summer months, and are ambient during athe intervening periods.

#I. Name: Zygocactus truncatus `Santa Cruz`.

#II. Parentage: This variety was developed from a mutation that occurred on a specimen of an unmarketed research variety (ZH18227) which shares a ancestry which is in part common to that of the variety known as "Twilight Tangerine" and which in turn forms the subject matter of U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,200.