US Experiences First Local Extinction Due to Rising Sea Levels: Study

Researchers believe that the United States has witnessed its first local extinction in the form of the large Key Largo tree cactus in Florida.

Knewz.com has learned that while the hardy succulent continues to grow in the Caribbean—specifically northern Cuba and parts of the Bahamas, the last one in Florida has died thanks to rising sea levels.

The plant was noted to have existed in a single population since 1992. Having been observed from time to time, it was recently noted to have succumbed to a combination of factors including, soil erosion through hurricanes, high tides, and plant-eating mammals.

Jennifer Possley, the director of regional conservation at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and lead author of the study noted:

“Unfortunately, the Key Largo tree cactus may be a bellwether for how other low-lying coastal plants will respond to climate change .”

Researchers are said to have happened upon the cacti for the first time in an isolated mangrove forest. At that point, academics and specialists in the field were undecided as to what they had discovered.

It was commonly mistaken for the rare and endangered species of Key Tree cactus ( Pilosocereus robinii ) occurring in various other Floridan locations—as both species grow perpendicular from the ground to heights of about 20 feet.

Additionally, both produce “garlic-scented flowers that reflect moonlight”, per the paper, attracting bats that help with their pollination.

The plant also produces a purplish fruit that draws birds and mammals.

The telltale difference between these plants according to the herbarium manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History , Alan Franck , is the “tuft of long, wooly hairs at the base of the flowers and fruits.”

According to Franck, these wooly tufts can grow so long that the cacti will appear to be covered in snow.

While both plant species possess this feature, the Key Largo tree cactus grows to twice the length of the Key Tree cactus.

Franck goes on to say that the now-extinct population in Key Largo was the only colony in the entire U.S.

While the same unfavorable factors have plagued its cousin, the Key Tree cactus for nearly a century, the latter still exists in more than one location.

Be this as it may, its numbers have dwindled “dangerously low”.

Accounts of the latter’s existence date back to the early twentieth century.

Botanist, John Small, wrote in 1917 that it was: “For a long time very abundant [on Key West]…In recent years, with the destruction of the hammock for securing firewood and for developing building sites, this interesting cactus has become scarce, until at present it is on the verge of extermination in its natural habitat.”

By 1984 the plant was listed as endangered but this did little to curb its thinning populations. A decade later a significant dip was noted as the Key Tree cactus receded by 84% between 1994 and 2007.

It was then that the researchers of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden started monitoring it annually.