In the last decade, cacti have exploded in popularity, becoming a mainstay of hipster decor around the world – from the homes of China’s growing middle class and the meticulous cactus gardens in Japan to the fashionable cafes of Europe.
In the US alone, sales of cacti and succulents surged 64% between 2012 and 2017; a market that is now estimated to be worth tens of millions. But rising demand has met a thorny problem: cacti are extremely slow-growing, with some species taking decades to grow from seed to full maturity. Hence, many opt for the shortcut: pulling them right out of the ground.
For land managers and scientists who work with cacti, the problem appears to be on the rise. While the precise scale is difficult to measure, and catching thieves red-handed in remote deserts is nearly impossible, major busts offer clues. In 2014, more than 2,600 stolen cacti were seized at US borders – up from 411 just a year before. But law enforcement officials and field scientists say that data represents only a tiny fraction of cactus actually being stolen.
“When I first started we rarely investigated cactus theft,” said one US Fish and Wildlife Service detective, who asked not to be named due to the undercover nature of his work. He has covered the south-west region for more than a decade and says the problem is increasing. “Now we are prosecuting cases involving thousands of plants at a time. The demand is so high that I fear we can’t stop the illegal trade going on.”
While many plants fall victim to underground cactus cartels, a seemingly more benign form of theft has become part of the problem, too. International visitors who come to the south-west specifically to view rare cactus in the wild sometimes take a souvenir home, and social media is exacerbating the problem.
“We’ve had Austrian, German and Italian collectors express strong interest on social media for these plants and they share GPS coordinates,” said Wendell “Woody” Minnich, the former president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. “Some of these people come to steal, especially when a new species is identified. They hide the plants in their suitcase and take them back to their greenhouse in Europe.”
Minnich, 71, has been a cactus grower and nursery operator in New Mexico for 50 years. He said the internet had significantly accelerated theft of rare, slow-growing cactus species over the last decade. A case in point: Sclerocactus havasupaiensis, which is native to one drainage at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, was being auctioned on eBay in early January by a seller in Ukraine. It was just one of more than 365 internationally protected plant species that are openly traded on Amazon and eBay.
“Do a Google search on Sclerocactus and you can find people in Russia selling them,” said Minnich. “I have been on public lands in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado where years ago Sclerocactus were everywhere, and recently I found just a bunch of little holes in the ground.”
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A selection of cactus postcards from our collection. Information on the postcards is below the read more.
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
"924:--Cholla Cactus on a California Desert." Published by Kashower Co, Los Angeles. Sent from Sierra Madre, California, to Kansas City, Missouri, in February 1937.
"F. F. 33 Night-blooming Cereus and Crotons, Florida." Photography by W. F. Gerecke, Pan American Photo Service, Miami. Sent from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Gardner, Massachusetts, by a granddaughter to her grandmother in January 1940.
"574 Yucca Palm or Spanish Dagger, California 1A-H455." By Western Publishing & Novelty Co. Sent from Pasadena, California, to Gardner, Massachusetts, in March 1933.
"909 Sentinels of the Desert, Giant Cactus (Sahuaro) 1A-H547." By Western Publishing and Novelty Co. Send from Los Angeles, California, to Burlington, Iowa, in July 1946.
"Riders on the Desert." Published by Bob Petley, Phoenix, Arizona. Sent from Phoenix to Bowling Green, Ohio, in February 1954.
"Desert Beauty PH-44-5." Published by H. S. Crocker Co., Inc. Photo by Jim Sexton. Sent from Bellevue, Washington, to Princeton, Massachusetts, in January 1963.
"H 1581 A Giant Cactus, Arizona." By Fred Harvey. Sent from Cactus, Arizona, to Gardner, Massachusetts, in December 1952.
"World's Largest Saguaro." Published by Bob Petley, Phoenix, Arizona. Photo by Hubert Lowman. Sent from Phoenix to Dearborn, Michigan.
"Saguaros, Giant Cacti." by Mike Roberts and Petley Studios. Sent from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Princeton, Massachusetts, in September 1964.
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