Bushels of barrels, boxes of beavertail, and a heaping helping of hedgehogs. That was my Friday in Havasu, where I was commissioned to remove yet another cactus garden provided I would get the plants at no charge. There were a total of 5 red barrels (Ferocactus cylindraceus), one enormous hedgehog cactus with 30 heads (Echinocereus engelmannii), and numerous large clumps of beavertail prickly pear (Opuntia basilaris) to be salvaged. They also had three absolutely stunning large clustering golden barrels (Echinocactus grusonii) nearly 3 feet/1 meter wide, but of course they wanted to keep those. Damn! I would LOVE to have gotten my claws into those goldens! The cacti I did get were fine of course. The red barrels were large, sort of old, and slightly misshapen and had been buried too deep by the original landscaper, but theyll serve fine as filler in the background of my gardens, unless someone decides that theyll buy them for cheap from me. The hedgehog had about 40 stems on it and was quite a monster for its species, but it lost about 10 of them in the move, and I am not all that convinced that such a large and old plant will successfully survive the trauma of a relocation. But Ill plant it out and see what happens, although I expect it to die within a year or two, as most transplanted Echinocereus of that age and size tend to do. The beavertails are in some ways the most interesting and nicest plants I got from this deal. I got three large boxes of pads (only one is shown here) and will put some in pots for resale, and the remainder I will naturalize in my desert. O. basilaris is actually native to my property, and I used to have literally hundreds of them when I first moved here in 1999. Big clumps were everywhere, spaced an average of 80 to 100 feet apart (25-30 meters), and when they bloomed in early April the desert lit up with their brilliant pink flowers. Note how I talk about them in the past tense. So what happened to them? Javelina happened to them. For those who do not know what a javelina (Pecari tajacu) is, they are also known by the name of collared peccary. Frequently confused with pigs, peccaries/javelina have several important anatomical differences from true pigs, although there are also clear similarities. They are widespread and found from the southwestern US throughout central America and into northern Argentina and southern Brazil. They are mostly animals of forests and scrublands, although they have adapted to survive in the US deserts because they have learned to feed upon the various prickly pear cacti that grow here as a water source in the absence of liquid water from a stream or pond. Javelina have been expanding their wild range northwards recently, and they were probably not found in the United States much before 200 years ago at the most. We know this by understanding several pieces of evidence. Native Americans make little or no mention of javelina in their oral history, folklore, or artwork, and there are no bones, teeth, or hides of javelina found in archaeological sites. The Spanish conquistadors that roamed this region starting in the 1500s also made no reference to hunting or seeing javelina, and packrat middens that contain bones of many animals do not contain javelina bones. Basically, javelina are immigrants to the US as recent as most white people are. ;-) Mohave County, Arizona, where I live, is now on the northwesternmost edge of current javelina territory, and it appears that they arrived here just about the same time I did, which was 1999. I admit that this is a bit of conjecture, but the fact that the entire desert was covered with thousands of beavertail prickly pears points to the fact that this was the case, because within about 3 years, there were almost none left. The javelina ate them all! I remember seeing bands of as many as 15 to 20 javelina running through the desert and across my property, and seeing them multiple times per year. The population was thriving and one of their primary sources of food and water were the beavertails. That is until they were all gone, at which point the javelina population crashed, and has stayed low ever since. Nowadays I only see small family units of javelina, perhaps 2 to 4 at a time, and only once or twice a year at the most. They are still here, but in much lower numbers than when there were more prickly pears for them to eat. And I can still see the dead, decaying remnants of beavertail clumps scattered about, even though its been about 12 to 13 years since they were killed. So the three boxes of beavertail pads, representing 200 or more potential new plants, are my effort at restoring this particular plant to something resembling its former abundance at D:F Ranch and in the desert nearby. I do still have a handful of O. basilaris around, but they are cowering under the protective canopy of dense catclaw acacias or creosote bushes, afraid to come out of hiding after witnessing the deaths of virtually all of their neighbors in a vicious cycle of botanical ethnic cleansing by these hooved terrorists. I am going to bring basilaris back to abundance. And I will succeed. Javelina, youve been served notice.... and dont mess with me.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 08:46:04 +0000
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