It is a critical parent plant in creating epiphyllum hybrids commonly cultivated worldwide.

The primary stems are terete (tapering at both ends) and 3-angled for a short portion at the base, becoming ligneous (woody) and flat for most of their length.

The phylloclades are lanceolate to long linear, acute or obtuse, median nerve rather thick, margins deeply or coarsely crenate, lobes oblique; areoles at the bases of stems sometimes bearing hairs or small bristles, internodes (plant stem part between nodes) narrow or broad.

This subspecies differs from the typical variety by: 4–6 cm wide stems, usually semicircular lobes; pericarpel and receptacle subterete (tapering at the bottom) in cross-section; pericarpel with subconical (somewhat cone shaped at the bottom) or obtuse, shortly decurrent podaria and with bracteoles subtending ca 6 (0-20) spines up to 12 mm long; outer tepals usually inserted within 4–8 cm of tube apex; fruit globose, the podaria short and decurrent, and obtuse.

A molecular phylogenetic study in 2016 showed that this species, which was then placed in the genus Epiphyllum, was firmly nested within Disocactus.

[5] The natural range of Disocactus crenatus spans from Mexico, specifically encompassing Oaxaca and Chiapas, down to Honduras and Panama.

[6] It thrives as an epiphytic species, exhibiting a propensity to grow upon other plants, or alternatively, as a lithophytic entity, establishing itself on rocky surfaces.

[7] This species was shown at an exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden in 1844, and won the highest medal for a new introduction.

It had been collected in Honduras five years earlier by Georges Ule Skinner and sent to Sir Charles Lemon who flowered it for the first time in 1843.