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In July, when the monsoon season rolls across the Sonoran Desert, the silky, yellow flowers of the Pima pineapple cactus burst into bloom. Sweet, green fruits soon follow, providing essential food and water to a number of desert critters. The Pima pineapple cactus was once abundant throughout its small range in southern Arizona, but with urban development and habitat loss, fewer of these cacti bloom every year.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1993
CRITICAL HABITAT: None
RECOVERY PLAN: Draft scheduled for completion in 2007
RANGE: Southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico
THREATS: Urban development, off-road vehicles, road construction, livestock grazing, agriculture, mining, and the proliferation of nonnative grasses
POPULATION TREND: Approximately 1,500 individual cacti remain in the United States today.
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SAVING THE PIMA PINEAPPLE CACTUS
In 1998, on behalf of a coalition of 31 environmental groups, the Center drafted the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. Encompassing nearly six million acres, this large-scale, regional habitat conservation plan is intended to staunch uncontrolled development in Pima County by establishing a process to conserve large swaths of desert. It manages human development and open space in southern Arizona to protect the Pima pineapple cactus and 22 other endangered species. The plan was unanimously adopted by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
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Contact: Kierán Suckling
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