Root Gorelick

Two More Cephalium-Bearing Cacti

Many cephaliumand pseudocephaliumbearing cacti described in this issue are closely related to either Melocactus or Pilosocereus, but there are two striking taxa that are considered to be distantly related: Espostoopsis dybowskii and Facheiroa cephaliomelana subspecies estevesii. Espostoopsis dybowskii is an enigmatic monotypic genus. With cream colored spines and pure white hairs, its four-meter-tall stems branch only from the base and start growing a cephalium when about 1.5–2.0 meters tall. While similar in appearance to the Peruvian genus Espostoa, it may not be closely related. While both genera are known for their densely hairy stems (not true in all Espostoa species), longerhaired wooly lateral cephalia, off-white funnelform flowers, and tall stems that seldom branch except at the base, these genera live thousands of kilometers apart from one another. Molecular systematists have yet to publish a phylogeny incorporating the DNA of Espostoopsis, but when one does we may finally understand where this cactus sits on the family tree. Whatever the case, it is a gorgeous plant in habitat and a fast grower in cultivation. Facheiroa is a genus of three species: F. cephaliomelana, F. ulei, and F. squamosa. Unlike Espostoopsis, Facheiroa is now considered a relative of Espostoa/Vatricania by biologists, although hobbists tend to disregard them as straggly weeds. The first two species have long lateral cephalia, which the third lacks. Despite the bad rap this genus receives, Facheiroa cephaliomelana subspecies estevesii, which we saw atop a large hill of bambui limestone near Iuiu, Bahia, was the prettiest plant I saw in eastern Brazil. Even without these magnificent columnar cacti, this would have been a fantastic habitat with Euphorbia attastoma, succulent Bombaceae in the genera Cavanillesia, and Ceiba, fantastic bromeliads, Melocactus levitestatis, Quiabentia zehntneri, and the ubiquitous Pilosocereus pachycladus. Esostoopsis dybowskii on the quartz massif at Serra Escura, Bahia, but one of many isolated Espostoopsis populations.

Coryphantha dasyacantha found in New Mexico...and the cacti at Anthony Gap

Doña Ana County’s Organ Mountains, in south central New Mexico, are a great place for exploring. These wonderful, rugged mountains, a one hour drive north of El Paso, loom over the sleepy town of Las Cruces to the west and White Sands to the northeast. I have travelled over most of this range, but I had never before hiked the portion of the Franklin Mountains in New Mexico, immediately south of the Organ Mountains. The Franklins reportedly hold such gems as Coxadxadrxadyphxadxadanxadthxadxada snxadeedii and C. dasyacanxadthxadxada (both sometimes placed in the segregate genus Escoxadxadbarxadia). Anthony Gap is an historically well-known locale for C. snxadeexad rOOT GOrELICK

Opuntia fragilis in the San Juan Islands

In March 2017, I was on San Juan Island in Washington State for a few weeks at Friday Harbor Laboratories. This is a wonderful place, even at the end of winter with lots of rain most days, which meant I got a lot of work done that had nothing to do with cacti or succulents. The Friday Harbor Lab’s housing and other facilities are very conducive to thinking and writing. But I also remembered from distribution maps (Benson 1982, Gorelick 2015) and a compendium of cactus herbarium records kindly compiled by Ben Legler of the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria that the diminutive brittle prickly pear cactus, Opuntia fragilis, was known from many parts of the San Juan Islands in the U.S., as well as from the Gulf Islands, which really are the same archipelago but in Canada. In fact, in the northern San Juan Islands and surrounding Salish Sea, cellphone coverage is now great if you have a Canadian phone plan ostensibly because of the large transmitting tower on Saturna Island in British Columbia. Given that cacti were not my primary reason for being in Washington State, upon arrival, I only casually inquired about and looked for Opuntia fragilis when I had free time and the weather was to the standards of someone from a place with more blue skies. This turned out to be a case of mistaken nonchalance. While there are many documented locales for Opuntia fragilis in the San Juan Islands — see Figure 1 based on the aforementioned twenty herbarium records — this species is not common. It seems to grow almost, but not quite exclusively, on smaller islands, some tiny, i.e. fractions of an acre. Of the twenty herbarium records, only two were from large islands, one on private property at the southern tip of Lopez Island. The other specimen was from just south of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, where the species is no longer found — that herbarium specimen was from 1923. The herbarium record from Waldron Island is also old, from 1908, and with vague locality information. For better or worse, the Washington State Ferries don’t go to the smaller islands and

Book ReviewTexas Cactiby Brian Loflin and Shirley Loflin . Texas A & M University Press, 2009.

I know several field biologists who project a truly macho façade. Yet these guys carry what are typically thought of as women’s purses— to carry field guides. The claims are invariably that the straps are the right length and the bags the right size, but I never really cared whether such claims were candid or disingenuous. I just thought it was odd. But lately I’ve come to realize that if I were to carry a purse around Texas, especially in the Trans-Pecos, it would have to hold the Loflins’ new book Texas Cacti. This book’s photos make a great complement to Powell, Weedin, and Powell’s Cacti of Texas, a more technical predecessor put out recently by the same publisher. Regardless of taxonomic opinion, both books have properly identified plants. But of the two, Texas Cacti has superior photos and is designed with amateurs in mind. Take it along as your guide in the field and check your IDs at home against the keys found in Cacti of Texas. The Loflins only discuss plants they have personally seen and photographed (thus skipping over Pereskia aculeata and Selenicereus spinulosus), and their field-only photographs nicely capture typical specimens in typical habitats. But because these are habitat shots, many plants are pictured without fruit or flower. So, while anyone who grows Acanthocereus tetragonus outdoors would have a photo of it in flower, I appreciate the authors’ honesty in including only real habitat shots. My one complaint about the uniformly superb photos is that too many are unlabeled. It is unfortunate that the text does not live up to the caliber of the photos and plant identifications. The anatomy section, for instance, should have been redacted entirely, with too many false or unsupported assertions: What does it mean that cactus flowers are inside-out? What evidence suggests that cacti (or almost anything other than a few orchids) are pollinated by ants? Who ever documented that apical meristems of cacti suffer a disproportionate number of mutations due to their seldom branching? Assembling good distribution maps is difficult, yet for the most part the maps here are accurate and useful. Notably missing, however, is Opuntia arenaria. In Texas, the Sand Prickly Pear (aka the El Paso Prickly Pear) is native to the Rio Grande between El Paso and Anthony. While not the most elegant or stately plant, it is one of only three cacti native to the Las Cruces, New Mexico area (my old home) that I can grow outdoors year-round in my new digs, Ottawa. (The other two are Cylindropuntia imbricata and Coryphantha vivipara.) Further, the map for Opuntia tunicata is mysteriously blank, Echinocereus viridiflorus var cylindricus is inadvertently left out of El Paso and Hudspeth Counties, and I’m fairly certain Cylindropuntia imbricata is not native to the Gulf Coast as the authors claim. Species are arranged by stem shape, an interesting innovation that usually works, though not always. The two Texas varieties of Escobaria vivipara (varieties vivipara and neomexicana) have different stem shapes according to these authors and are hence placed sixty pages apart. Still, superb and properly identified photos make this book easily worth the price. Now I just need to find a matching purse. Texas Cacti by Brian Loflin and Shirley Loflin. Texas A & M University Press, 2009.

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THE SONORAN Desert

NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENCE STANDARDS KFrom Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. ELA COMMON CORE Reading Informational Text Key Ideas and Details K.RI.1 With prompting asks, answers questions about details in a text. Writing Vocabulary Acquisition and Use K.W.5a Sort common objects into categories to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent. Speaking and Listening Comprehension and Collaboration K.W.6 Speaks audibly, expresses thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly. Research to Build and Present Knowledge K.W.7 Participates in shared research & writing projects – express opinion about research subject.

Hiking New Mexico's Achenbach Canyon

A chenbach Canyon is an easily accessible, but seldom hiked trail near Las Cruces, New Mexico that has, over the past decade, become one of my favorite destinations. This is both a short drive, just east of the city in the Organ Mountains, and a short hike, which even after two dozen visits still delights with its plants and scenery. Depending on how much time you spend examining the plants and whether you explore any of the trails at the end of Upper Achenbach Canyon, the hike lasts about 2–4 hours. The trail begins at an elevation of roughly 1500 m elevation, and on May 2, 2005, we ended our hike in the relatively flat area of Upper Achenbach Canyon at roughly 1700 meters, although you could continue up for another 500 m, climbing the ridge that separates Achenbach Canyon from Soledad Pass. Even on the drive to the trailhead (see “Getting There,” p 136), you will start seeing cacti. All along Soledad Canyon Road there are Hiking New Mexico’s Achenbach Canyon ROOT GORELICK