Trekking for Cuban Cacti

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Trekking for Cuban CactiAuthor(s) EDWINA PFENDBACHSource Cactus and Succulent Journal 77(2)75-81 2005Published By Cactus and Succulent Society of AmericaDOI httpdxdoiorg1029850007-9367(2005)77[75TFCC]20CO2URL httpwwwbiooneorgdoifull1029850007-936728200529775B753ATFCC5D20CO3B2

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Summer year round won-derful beaches dark blue seas Latin music and

rummdashalmost all the makings of a typical Cuban vacation But for plant lovers there is so much morehellip A wealth of fascinating botanical diversions awaits cactophiles in Cuba

When my husband and I decided to make a trip to Cuba at the end of 2001 it was still difficult to find detailed information about the cacti that grow there and how to find them Detailed information about Cuban Melocactus species was practically non-existent We did find them thoughmdashwith much trial and mixed successmdashand we hope to encourage more adventurers to go expand upon our findings and share more about Cuban cactus habitats with future travellers

A year before our own travels a friend of mine returned from Cuba provided me with valuable information and gave me a copy of Meacuteszaacuterosrsquos 1976 article1 ldquoThe Melocactus Species of Cubardquo While species concepts vary widely by author Meacuteszaacuteros documented and upheld the many Melocactus species in on the island and from his article we learned that the eastern part of the island is home to the majority of Cuban melocacti which is con-venient for the time-strapped wandering botanist Our twelve-day stay would have been too short to traverse the entire island

Before we started our trip Andersonrsquos long

awaited tome2 The Cactus Family finally appeared For me it was surprising to see that with few exceptions Anderson followed Taylorrsquos radical and conservative 1991 treatment3 lumping all Cuban melocacti under M harlowii Included in this (horticulturally) unsatisfying decision are all the species that grow in the southeastern part of the island including M acunae M acunae ssp

Figure 1 This is an especially old plant (nearing 40 cm) of Melocactus borhidii near Tortuguilla

CUBAN CACTIEDWINA PFENDBACH

Trekking for

2005 VOLUME 77 NUMBER 2 75

lagunaensis M borhidii M evae M nagyi and M radoczii Now I was even more anxious to see all these plants in habitat

FITS AND STARTS ROADS AND RAINSThe hotel we booked in Cuba was located on the northeast coast close to the well-known beach resort Guardalavaca This became our base camp from which excursions around the eastern part of the island were launched Along this part of the coast Pilosocereus Ritterocereus and Selenicereus plants can be found in some places accompanied by gray Tillandsias and non-endemic plants such as Sansevieria trifasciata Euphorbia trigona and E undulatifolia which are often used as natu-ral fences In this area little ring-tailed lizards endemic to Cuba are quite common

In hopes of reach-ing our first Melocactus locale we braved a drive of about 50 kilo-meters M holguinen-sis is reported to grow near the coffer-dam of Presa Rio Gibara in the Holguiacuten province (see map) This is the only Melocactus of the east-ern part of the island that does not belong to the M acunae group It was lumped under M curvispinus by Taylor3 Unfortunately Joseacute Toledorsquos notes4 on the location of this spe-cies were not of much help Not even the local residents knew what to

make of his directions so we just concentrated on finding the dam

The condition of the road was utterly dread-fulmdashnothing but a series of big holes that forced us to a crawl At the beginning of the 1990s tourists faced problems with inadequate rental cars gas coupons and even lack of food Nowadays one has to contend with bad road conditions The State obviously suffers from an acute lack of funds and repairs have ritually ceased in recent years We had almost reached our destination when only four kilometers from the dam in the village of Presa

Figure 2 Landscape near Tortuguilla with Ritterocereus

hystrix Consolea sp and Agave albicans

It was now clear that it would have been better to rent a Jeep

76 CACTUS AND SUCCULENT JOURNAL

Gibara the back right tire of our car blew out It was now clear that it would have been better to rent a Jeep Although the tire was changed within min-utes with the assistance of a very helpful young truck driver we decided against continuing on this road without a spare tire not wishing to jeopardize our trip to the south on the following day

The sky was full of dark clouds when we left the hotel the next morning by the time we reached Holguiacuten it was steadily pouring The rain prevented us from taking a snapshot of an

unusual sight apparently unique to this town In Holguiacuten little black pigs are transported (alive) tied onto the luggage racks of bicycles Our plan had been to take the direct road to the south coast via Bayamo where we had hoped to see M nagyi between El Macho and La Plata but because of the cloudburst we proceeded directly to Santiago de Cuba instead Signposts and other traffic sig-nals are sparse and we would recommend travel-ers hire a guide before getting lost in a big city Fortunately the local people are extremely help-fulmdasha young cyclist showed us the way by riding in front of us until we reached the edge of town

Our drive to Santiago de Cuba was hampered by several hours of torrential rainfall Part of the road was a so-called highway (the only one that exists in the eastern part of Cuba) though it lacked signposts and supported traffic made up not only of cars but also people and animals and it rapidly developed into a big lake Fortunately the rain stopped as soon as we reached the hotel that we had booked for the night affording us an opportunity to do a little sightseeing downtown

The next day we were luckier as the sun was shining when we set off to Baitiquiriacute On the rec-ommendation of our French friend we had upon our arrival in Cuba phoned to arrange a visit with the director of the local ecological station (Estacion Ecologica de Baitiquiriacute) who is also a cactus lover On the way down we planned to leave the road in Guantaacutenamo in the direction of Hatibonico where M evae is said to be located However we did not get to see this plant either as the military police stopped us just outside Hatibonico and did not permit us to go any fur-

Figure 4 Ritteorcereus hystrix

Figure 3 Mammillaria prolifera near Cajobambo


Figure 5 A view of the newly-discovered melocactus habitat at Los Cerezos


ther Unfortunately the site of M evae is very close to the US military base at Guantaacutenamo At least we did see a huge solitary Ritterocereus hystrix in one of the fields next to the road accompanied by a few Harrisia species We even took the trouble to climb some fences to get closer and take a photo of the ritterocereus not knowing that we would later see many more

FINALLY FIRST ENCOUNTERSWe were having serious worries about ever see-ing a melocactus until shortly before we reached Tortuguilla we spotted the first one M borhidii growing almost horizontally out of a limestone rock near the street It was one of the older specimens with a length of about 25 cm That it has survived so long is surely because it grows about 4 m high up on the rock so that it was not easily accessible

Following the rule that says if there is one plant others will be in the vicinity we climbed a nearby hill that faced the sea to find more The hill though not very steep was dangerous I stepped on a loose rock which set off a small avalanche that I could not escape and a sharp stone cut my right knee I immediately forgot about my injury however after finding an extraordinary and espe-cially old M borhidii plantmdash40 cm tall without cephalium (Fig 1) Meacuteszaacuteros had described this species1 as being no higher than 29 cm

Here we also encountered the dangerously- spined Cylindropuntia hystrix for the first time Most of them were adult plants Seedlings obvi-ously have difficulty surviving we found a lot of them stamped into the ground by the little black pigs the locals keep and which run around free We also saw huge plants of Ritterocereus hystrix in

bud (apparently unusual at this time of the year) tree-like Consolea plants and the beautiful bluish rosettes of Agave albicans (Fig 2) We also discov-ered a single plant of Mammillaria prolifera on one of the limestone rocks near the sea In contrast to the brownish spined Mexican version the spina-tion on the Caribbean plants is pure white

Figure 6 A fine specimen of Melocactus aff acunae at Los Cerezos


At the ecological station of Baitiacutequiri all avail-able rooms were occupied by four German stu-dents participating in an EU project so we could not spend the night there In the evening we were taken to an alternate accommodation that turned out to be a little hut on a lonely beach near San Antonio del Sur It was an idyllic setting but the furniture was rather primitive and there was no running water Nevertheless after a good nightrsquos sleep we explored the coast between Macambo and Cajobabo together with some new Cuban friends Here big populations of M harlowii and a M acunae species dominate the landscape On a hill above the coast in the neighborhood of Cajobabo one can find big beautifully white-spined clumps of Mammillaria prolifera (Fig 3) on rocks and in humusy forest soil beneath til-landsia-covered trees T paucifolia plants grow here with a nearly white coating on their leaves

A NEW CACTUS TERRITORYmdash LOS CEREZOSIn the village of Imiacuteas we were directed along a dirt road that was in dubious condition and after only a hundred meters we had to leave the car Recent rains had left the road impassable We walked inland towards the north passing hun-dreds of Ritterocereus hystrix (Fig 4) dead fences of which demarcated agricultural plots Healthy strong plants many with incipient buds flanked

the road While anticipating the surprises in store we observed the surroundings change from worked to unworked fields and then to sparsely vegetated meadows After a brisk 40-minute walk we found ourselves at another melocactus habitat

We had not expected a melocactus location so far away from the coast as most are found on the limestone terraces along the sea The area covered by this population is relatively smallmdashapproximately 2000 square meters of ground covered in crystalline pebbles (Fig 5)

The director of the ecological station told us that this population had been discovered the year before while they were looking for an area suit-able for grazing cattle as part of a milk project In his opinion this population was not previously known nor had the plants been described As a matter of fact this location called Los Cerezos has to my knowledge never been mentioned in the literature (not even by Meacuteszaacuteros who seems to be an expert in Cuban melocacti) Thus being the first foreigners to visit this place we were quite in awe of these striking plants

Unlike most of the other Melocactus acunae species we had seen so far these plants (Fig 6 7) form enormous clumps The upward curv-ing spines are extremely long and stout with an especially strong central spine Young plants have golden-yellow spines older specimens (without a cephalium) have reddish-brown spines and ceph-

L Figure 7 Melocactus aff acunae at Los CerezosmdashNote the varying lengths of the cephaliaJ Figure 8 A large fiercely-spined M aff acunae at Macambo

this population was not previously known

alium-bearing plants have fading yellow spines Sadly not a single plant had an open flower we could photograph

After returning home I sought out expert opinions about this new melocactus population Alberto Areces Malea Zoltan Meacuteszaacuteros and Nigel Taylor examined photos and Areces also evalu-ated the seeds While these botanists often have differing species concepts they all agreed that these plants belong to the M acunae group

Before returning home we had to continue our trip around the east coast After this exciting day we spent another night in our little seashore cabin where we were served delicious homemade food and Cuban wine

Travelling in the direction of Baracoa we returned to the north of the island the next day We found a small well-known population of M acunae ssp lagunaensis shortly after passing Cajobabo There were also some trees support-ing big bushes of the epiphytic cactus Rhipsalis cassutha Another five kilometers further on just before Veguita del Sur we discovered some more plants of M acunae ssp lagunaensis on a slope at the side of the road looking quite different from plants of the same name growing in the area of Punta de Maisiacute some 30 km distant Alas this was the last cactus habitat we saw during our trip

We continued along the famous Farola Road which ends in Baracoa The landscape soon changed to primeval forests where rainforest vegetation is dominant Here the trees are totally covered (Fig 9) with green tillandsias and other bromeliads epi-phytic cacti ferns and orchidsmdashquite a contrast to the arid coastal areas in the south

Baracoa was Cubarsquos first city and some say its most beautiful I cannot agree Due to an open-air disco that shared its extremely loud pop music with the entire city until 4 AM we had an almost sleepless night Thus after an early breakfast we took to our heels and headed north along the coast in the direction of Moa Just beyond Baracoa the road (mostly potholes) developed into a night-mare Suddenly the road was no longer paved and as a result of the heavy rainfall of the days before had turned into a mud canyon piled up to a meter on either side of the car Fearing we would get stuck we tried to keep on track by closely fol-lowing a people-crammed truckbus For several kilometers driving was only possible at walking speed The journey seemed endless

The landscape gradually changed into wide fields of sugar cane and we were pleased to spot the first trees covered with an abundance of til-landsias orchids and epiphytic cacti We were close to our hotel and could enjoy the prospect of a reviving swim in the sparkling blue sea

REFERENCES1 MEacuteSZAacuteROS Z 1976 The Melocactus Species of

Cuba Acta Botanica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 22

2 ANDERSON EF 2001 The Cactus Family Timber Press

3 TAYLOR N 1991 The Genus Melocactus in Central and South America Bradleya 9

4 TOLEDO J 1995 Die Wiederentdeckung von Melocactus holguinensis Kakt Sukk 46 (2)

Figure 9 Tree covered with epiphytic plants along the road to Baracoa



Summer year round won-derful beaches dark blue seas Latin music and

rummdashalmost all the makings of a typical Cuban vacation But for plant lovers there is so much morehellip A wealth of fascinating botanical diversions awaits cactophiles in Cuba

When my husband and I decided to make a trip to Cuba at the end of 2001 it was still difficult to find detailed information about the cacti that grow there and how to find them Detailed information about Cuban Melocactus species was practically non-existent We did find them thoughmdashwith much trial and mixed successmdashand we hope to encourage more adventurers to go expand upon our findings and share more about Cuban cactus habitats with future travellers

A year before our own travels a friend of mine returned from Cuba provided me with valuable information and gave me a copy of Meacuteszaacuterosrsquos 1976 article1 ldquoThe Melocactus Species of Cubardquo While species concepts vary widely by author Meacuteszaacuteros documented and upheld the many Melocactus species in on the island and from his article we learned that the eastern part of the island is home to the majority of Cuban melocacti which is con-venient for the time-strapped wandering botanist Our twelve-day stay would have been too short to traverse the entire island

Before we started our trip Andersonrsquos long

awaited tome2 The Cactus Family finally appeared For me it was surprising to see that with few exceptions Anderson followed Taylorrsquos radical and conservative 1991 treatment3 lumping all Cuban melocacti under M harlowii Included in this (horticulturally) unsatisfying decision are all the species that grow in the southeastern part of the island including M acunae M acunae ssp

Figure 1 This is an especially old plant (nearing 40 cm) of Melocactus borhidii near Tortuguilla

CUBAN CACTIEDWINA PFENDBACH

Trekking for
















































































































































































































































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Trekking for Cuban Cacti