The Cactus Hunters by Jared D. Margulies

Author:Jared D. Margulies [Margulies, Jared D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NAT048000 NATURE / Plants / Cacti & Succulents, SOC002000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 2023-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

A Very Rare Plant

Greek for “thick plant,” D. pachyphytum is aptly named—its leaves are fleshy and blunt, ranging in color from a periwinkle blue to a bright yellowish green. Coated in a fine white powder, the leaves have a soft, matte sheen. Above all, what makes D. pachyphytum so striking is its overall appearance; despite its somewhat angular geometry and compact form, it has a soft, cute sensibility—it exudes charisma.9 In my first interaction with D. pachyphytum, I was split between a heady sense of reverence for this extraordinary plant I had so anxiously anticipated encountering and a more immediate urge to pinch it. The story of D. pachyphytum converges with that of D. farinosa through entangled histories that exemplify the role of desire in shaping collecting practices. As species in the Dudleya genus became more popular in the last decade among succulent collectors, it only was a matter of time before the most ardent and passionate collectors would seek out D. pachyphytum. D. pachyphytum only grows on the north-facing cliffs of Isla de Cedros, off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, and nowhere else in the world. Its habitat is difficult to access, requiring either harboring a boat and scrambling up steep cliffs pounded by forceful Pacific waves or taking an overland route, traversing twelve miles across the mountainous terrain of the island. You would then need a way to get the plants off the island—either by boat or by plane. The other option, if you were so bold, would be to charter a helicopter and fly directly to their location, steal what you could, and attempt to fly to mainland Mexico—which is exactly what several Korean collectors purportedly did in 2016.10

Isla de Cedros is a dry, mountainous island. Beyond the main town of Cedros, it remains largely uninhabited, save for a few tiny fishing villages (Figure 33). Cedros has a permanent population of approximately 1,350 individuals, and it has two main economies. The first is a local fishing cooperative that primarily traps lobster half the year and harvests abalone the other. Most of what the cooperative harvests is sent to China and other East Asian countries as high-value export goods. The second industry is a major salt export operation, a joint venture of the Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mexican government. Aside from these activities, Mexico’s marines have a presence on the island, there is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic, and there are a few sport fishing and commercial bluefin tuna outfits. Otherwise, it is a sleepy, quiet place, full of empty beaches, arid hills dotted with agaves and cacti, and, higher up in the mountains, beautiful Monterey pine forests at times shrouded in thick fog (the Spanish got it wrong in calling it the island of cedars). My first impression of Cedros was that it seemed an unlikely place to find Dudleya, much less the “crown jewel” of the genus. The Cedros landscape is primarily dry and rugged, yet the majority of Dudleya plants I had seen

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