| August 2010 saw me
heading off for a non plant-related holiday to the island of St. Lucia in
the Caribbean (I know it’s a chore but someone has to go there). However
in common with many of these Islands I did expect to see at least two
cacti growing there, a cereioid which grows on all the exposed cliff sides
and a Melocactus. The island may not seem the obvious location for cacti
as most of the island, which is about 20 miles North to South and 10 miles
East to West, is covered in tropical rain forest and it receives around
200 inches of rain each year on average with the central highlands getting
up to 240 inches. Most of this rain falls in the summer months but is
interspersed with hot sunny periods which can be from a few hours to a few
days at a time. Soon after my arrival
I started asking around the hotel staff if they knew of any locations for
these plants and in particular the Melocactus. Knowledge of my queries
soon got around the other guests and led to an interesting chat with a
couple who told me they had a friend who was into cacti. Needless to say I
asked them where they were from, sensing the possibility of an
undiscovered potential new member. Unfortunately they said they were from
the Northampton area and their friend was called Trev. I knew the Ed. was
keen for me to write up an article but to send his friends to the
Caribbean to keep me on my toes was a bit over the top. After a few days I
got to know Eugene Skeete a local nurseryman who kept the hotel supplied
with flower displays mainly composed of ‘ginger lilies’, Heliconias
and Anthuriums. He offered to take me to one of the locations which had
both cacti. |
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Luckily he had a battered old 4 wheel drive which negotiated the deeply rutted tracks out to the point on the extreme Northeast tip of the island where they grew. There was no problem locating the cereioid which was identified for me by Graham Charles as Pilosocereus royenii. It grew in large clumps over the cliff tops and was flowering and seeding well to such an extent that at times I had difficulty walking between clumps of it. I later saw the same plant on cliff edges all around the coastline of the island. |
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There was also what appeared to be an endemic Agave which Colin Walker identified as A. caribaeicola. |
The Melocactus which Marlon Machado has agreed is M. intortus was much more difficult to find. The first specimen I found was an old misshapen one growing in the grass. Moving a little nearer the cliff edge I then came upon a large number of immature plants growing in the black volcanic rocks but none with a cephalium which instantly started alarm bells ringing.
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Moving nearer to the edge I then saw, but could not reach, an old specimen, (left) largely out of the medium with much of its roots exposed, but throwing offsets along the edge suggesting it had been there in this position for some time.Finally I found one fine mature specimen (right) growing so perilously close to the cliff edge that I would not have been able to get close enough to it without a zoom lens. This is probably what saved it for I can only surmise that all the accessible mature plants have been collected out. |
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They must have been
present within the last two years based on the obvious age of the youngest
plants so their removal is very recent. My guide Eugene told me that this area
used to be covered with mature plants and that the only other location nearby
was now similarly depleted.
I do not know the
rate of growth at this location but would assume with high temperatures, plenty
of sun and an abundance of rain it would probably be quite fast. Even so the
juvenile plants that remained would take a number of years to reach maturity
before any further regeneration could take place. It is my understanding that
the location I visited and the one nearby are the only ones in the North of the
island and that there is a small colony in the extreme south of the island for
which I have no information. If this obvious collecting is repeated when the
current crop reach maturity the Melocactus will become extinct in the North of
St Lucia within the next 10 to 20 years.
David
Ed:
Thanks David for sharing your cactus hunting exploits with us. It is
worrying that you have seen evidence of collecting these unusual plants which
grow in such a restricted habitat.
And
we are glad that you are keeping a look out for potential members for the BCSS
