Not only do southern Arizona cities get
water from Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; now, they’re importing
cacti from Texas.
Prickly Trade, a new
study from the World Wildlife Fund, reveals that cities such as
Tucson and Phoenix are importing much of their drought-tolerant
landscaping from west Texas. Between 1998 and 2001, almost 100,000
succulent plants were exported from Texas to Arizona — at a
value of more than $3 million. Two-thirds of those were ocotillos;
other popular plants include barrel and hedgehog cacti, yuccas and
agaves.
Many of the plants are common in Arizona, but are
cheaper to import because Texas, unlike Arizona, does not regulate
collection of its native flora. Collectors typically get permission
from ranchers — who see cacti as a nuisance to livestock
— to remove plants from rangeland and then sell them to
nurseries. Other cacti exported from Texas are often illegally
smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.
None of the species
studied by the World Wildlife Fund are immediately threatened with
extinction, but demand for the plants is outstripping the natural
supply. “The volumes (of plants exported) over the long term
are just not sustainable,” says biologist Christopher
Robbins, editor of the report. Excessive harvesting could also
conspire with global climate change and habitat loss to wipe out
some local plant populations.
Although conservationists
applaud efforts to curb water use by xeriscaping instead of
planting water-sucking lawns and trees, the report warns that
“those well-intended campaigns may be mitigating one
environmental problem while exacerbating
another.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Where’d you get that cactus, partner?.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
