''Sclerocactus mesae-verdae'', the Mesa Verde cactus or Mesa Verde fishhook cactus, is a species of

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

native to northwestern

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and southwestern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. It is known only from

Montezuma County Montezuma County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,849. The county seat is Cortez. Mesa Verde National Park, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Yucca House National Monu ...

(Colorado) and San Juan County (New Mexico). Much of the New Mexico part of the range lies inside land controlled by the

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah; at roughly , the ...

. The Colorado populations lie close to

Mesa Verde National Park Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Established ...

Description

''Sclerocactus mesae-verdae'' is an unbranched columnar cactus up to 20 cm tall and 10 cm in diameter. It has 13-17 longitudinal ribs but inconspicuous

tubercules In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection ...

. Each

areole In botany, areoles are small light- to dark-colored bumps on cacti out of which grow clusters of spines. Areoles are important diagnostic features of cacti, and identify them as a family distinct from other succulent plants. Gordon Rowley - W ...

has 7-14 radial spines up to 13 mm long, plus 0-4 central spines (usually straight but occasionally hooked) up to 15 mm long. Flowers are bell-shaped to trumpet-shaped, up to 4 cm across and 3 cm in diameter, white to yellow with purple stripes running up the center of some of the outer tepals. Fruits at maturity are tan and cylindrical, up to 10 mm long. Seeds are black.

Distribution and habitat

Along with the one Colorado population (1,000 plants), in

the population groups (4,000–10,000 plants) are in a four

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

locations. These five major population groups have been registered as threatened, and there are up to a total of 10 population groups left in the wild. Since 1997 federally and 2003 globally, the species has been an officially listed

threatened species Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensa ...

. It is most frequently found growing on the tops of hills or benches and slopes of hills, from gravelly to loamy and pulverulent

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

soil.Spackman, S.; Jennings, B.; Coles, J.; Dawson, C.; Minton, M.; Kratz, A.; Spurrier, C.; Skadelandl, T. 1997. Colorado Rare Plant Field Guide. Fort Collins, CO: Prepared for the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. . accessed 9/19/2010Benson, L. 1982. The Cacti of the United States and Canada. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. 1044p.

Conservation

As with many slowly maturing desert cacti, the Mesa Verde Cactus has been subjected to

over-harvesting Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term app ...

and "

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

," contributing to its decline in the wild. Among the cacti, it is particularly sensitive to the effects of illegal cactus collecting due to its small population size, limited range, and low reproductive success rate. The species is intolerant to transplantation, wild-collected specimens usually die in cultivation, making the "poaching" pointless and eliminating potentially important genetic variation from the species as a whole. However, as of 2017 the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

assesses the species as

Least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

based on ongoing protection and management in multiple locations and lack of severe population fragmentation.

References

External link

{{Taxonbar, from=Q146081 mesae-verdae Cacti of the United States Flora of Colorado Flora of New Mexico Endemic flora of the United States Montezuma County, Colorado San Juan County, New Mexico Endangered flora of the United States