Ecological studies of edaphic islands or WHY WE CANT HAVE NICE THINGS.
Uebelmannia pectinifera is an endangered cactus species that occurs on exposures of quartz-rich, nutrient-poor sandstone that serve as rocky arid "islands" surrounded by an ocean of subtropical dry-deciduous forest in Brazil. This particular population has experienced a 98% reduction due to poaching.
It occurs with Kielmeyera (Calophyllaceae), Calliandra sp., Encholirium, a xeric Philodendron, a xeric Anthurium, Cipocereus minensis, and many more.
Spines occur on the margins of the ribs, and the sides of the ribs are coated in dense, speckled patterns of trichomes and wax.
What struck me most about its habitat is that there was virtually no soil here, except that created by the dead leaves of the dry-deciduous trees (legumes and Kielmeyera) and old armored leaf blades of the Encholirium.
Sadly, the poaching here has been extremely brutal. Reportedly there were once hundreds of plants covering these rock outcrops (which are only black because of the living crust of lichen that covers them), but nearly all of them have been stolen for sale to collectors. For many people, that primate brain of ours just HAS to have these plants in our collection. What good does it do to preserve intact habitat if it's so far away and all we get to see are pictures? Better to have the opportunity to slowly kill these plants over a number of years by having them in a pot while we struggle to re-create the specific and extreme conditions that they have evolved to over many millions of years.
Meanwhile, botanists in the regional localities where many of these plants grow struggle to garner public enthusiasm - let alone education that these plants even exist - among the people that live there, if only because very few modern societies express a values system that takes into account viewing plants via any ecological context as vital cogs in a living machine that we all need to have intact in order for our own civilization to function let alone survive.
Not a day goes by that I don't consider this.
Anyways, enjoy your morni
ng! GFY, BYE 😘
