According to the Associated Press, the acuña cactus is endangered by – get this – “drought and climate change and could be harmed by illegal immigration and border enforcement efforts.” (Via AZCENTRAL.COM.)
Pima County fact sheet for Acuña Cactus (Echinomastus erectocentrus var. acunensis) lists this species status as:
The Acuña cactus is a candidate species for the Threatened and Endangered list. The plant is protected by the Arizona Native Plant Law, and is protected for international trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The population may be threatened by illegal take and natural causes such as parasitism.
There is reference to neither border enforcement, drought nor climate change by the Pima County fact sheet. They do mention illegal taking of the cacti. I note that the “protection” by laws and international agreements do little to protect anything.
It seems to me that the greenbat and open-borders (so-called) journalists at AP insist on injecting their own guidelines as to what could be causing the population decline. Damsel suggested that illegal aliens cross the border, steal the cacti and put them in little pots for sale to tourists or for export to landscape and garden shops in the US.
The lone comment on the article in AZCENTRAL said “more bull …from the agenda 21 extremist crowd.” I cannot disagree with that.
I don’t know about var. acunensis, but the type variety, var. erectocentrus from farther east, is quite common. I stopped momentarily on I 10 where the road cut into raw rock, and it was densely covered with E. erectocentrus v. erectocentrus. One had fallen loose, and it has grown and flowered for me for over 10 years.
We’re hoping to have the same from a rescued fishhook cactus I found up the wash under some cat’s paw. I brought it down and Damsel put it into a pot where it seems to be doing OK. Next spring and summer will bee the proof that it’s really OK.
Isn’t that the fishhook mammillaria that Damsel has posted about a couple of times? Or is this a new one that eroded out?
It’s a new one found up the wash – it’s now in a pot by the porch – we’ll see how it’s doing in the spring.