Mexican threatened cacti: Current status and strategies for their conservation Chapter uri icon

abstract

  • Cactaceae is an American plant family found from Canada down to Argentina. Cacti have evolved anatomical and physiological adaptations, which allow them to grow and thrive under desert conditions. Therefore, cacti are a main part of the arid and semiarid landscape. The greatest cacti diversity, for genus and species (63 and 669, respectively), is located in Mexico, where approximately 78%25 of cacti is endemic. Cacti have been used since pre-hispanic times for food, medicines, fodder, and raw material. Furthermore, cacti are considered as one of the most important ornamental plants nowadays, given that they have beautiful flowers and low water requirements. Unfortunately, the meaningless exploitation, poachers and habitat destruction (for agriculture, grazing, housing development, etc.) have posed cacti on an unstable situation, near extinction. Pressure increases as time goes by, since more human developments are found everyday. Currently, more than 250 Mexican cacti are considered as threatened species. Cacti, usually, have a long life cycle and low growth rates, which are prone conditions for vulnerability. One of the main hindrances for cacti conservation is that they have a low multiplication rate, mostly in those species that are not asexually propagated. Cacti sexual multiplication has a low efficiency, and sometimes cacti seeds are very scarce. The precedent cacti multiplication dilemma has caused that enough cacti plants for reforestation are not easily available. In this context, in vitro plant tissue culture techniques are a feasible alternative to effortlessly propagate numerous cacti. These techniques use plant fragments, under lab and axenic conditions, to massively propagate cacti plants. The in vitro-obtained cacti can be hardened under greenhouse conditions, where they grow as wild type cacti. Plant tissue culture methods allow the fast asexual multiplication of cacti in a short time and in a reduced space, even starting from a scarce supply of plant material. Several successful evidences on cacti propagation using plant tissue culture protocols can be found in the literature; consequently these techniques may be valuable tools to overcome the cacti extinction. © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

publication date

  • 2011-01-01