Birth flower for January 20
Christmas cactus
Meaning: a beautiful view, good fortune
Despite the name, this is a cactus that lives up in the trees, not in the desert. Its flat, jointed stems look like crab claws in Chinese and like mantis shrimp in Japanese. It sets buds when nights grow long, which puts its show right around Christmas in the north, but in its Brazilian homeland it blooms in May and is called the May flower.