My Epiphyllum is doing well, but over the winter it put up a really long whip-like green shoot (around 3 ft long) straight up into the air. OK, what is it, and what do I do with it? I thought the flowers came out of the leaves, which of course are large and flat. This stalk is so solid that I'm worried it will tip the whole pot with plant over...
No problem: they do that. Mine has to have stakes to keep it from pulling the pot over with the wild growth. I've only seen the flowers from the flat stems. I have seen these pencil type stems get the flatter stems growing out of them, though.
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=39713&highlight=epiphyllum This link has Steve Lucas (RIP) asking about this sort of shoot you and I have seen. The explanation may be of interest to you. The upshot is that we are calling it a stolon, and it's a very common occurrence. I knew there had to be something explanatory in this wealth of information on the UBC forums.
