Cacti and Succulents Endangered

I was sad to read that quite a few species of cacti and succulents, many of which I've featured on this blog, are endangered because of habitat loss, climate change, and poaching.

Ah, Babytoes!

Los Tres Amigos

Lithops Younglings

You can read about it here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34447534

Always buy plants and seeds from reputable dealers who care about the plants and the environments they evolved in. Make sure they have the correct CITES certificates for what they sell. That way, our grandchildren can enjoy these beautiful plants, too. Happy gardening, and join me in feeling grateful for our wonderful cacti and succulents!

More Lithops

A Mammillaria For Monday

Mammillaria zeilmanniana, MR 2013

Mammillaria zeilmanniana is a real beauty with hot pink flowers and bright red, crazy-curled spines. Many Mammillaria have hooked spines, but they are especially prominent on this species, and the color really glows.

M. zeilmanniana is on the CITES list (App. II) of rare and endangered plants.  Though it's grown in cactus nurseries all over the US, and is very popular with gardeners, wild specimens are extremely rare, and limited to a small area in Mexico. Less than 250 remain in the wild today. This little guy came from a local commercial nursery.

New CITES Preview Document Available

To go with Pensive Tuesday's post, I thought I'd give the URL for the preview report of the new CITES Appendices, which are due out formally next week.  The plant section starts on page 32.

http://www.cites.org/eng/app/2012/E-2012-09-25.pdf

Not the easiest document to go through, and the emphasis is on trade in endangered/threatened flora and fauna, but interesting to see what's included and what's not.