Status of Listed Species and Recovery Plan Development
Key Tree-cactus
Cereus robinii -- Endangered
Florida
Current Status:
Some visitors to the National Key Deer Refuge illegally remove cactus fragments for rooting. The small size of U.S. Key tree-cactus populations make the Endangered Species Act sanctions essential to discourage such activities.
Achievements:
An inventory of tree-cactus populations by a Florida Atlantic University team indicates the number to be almost 500 clumps, more than 10 times greater than previous estimates. Located in dense tropical hardwood thickets, primarily in National Key Deer Refuge, populations are being mapped and counted to provide baseline data for future assessments of the species' status. An evaluation of the cactus' reproductive biology is under way to discover pollinators and determine the mode of seed dispersal. In addition, the Service has acquired some additional habitat for this species.
Current Recovery Needs:
The species' recovery plan has been rendered obsolete by the recent inventory and will be revised. Additional effort needs to be made to protect the tree-cactus on public land and prevent extinction of the moths believed to pollinate the cactus.
Partnerships
Florida Department of Natural Resources: Responsible for protecting Key tree-cactus in a State recreation area, the Department is in the process of inventorying that population. Recurrent proposals to use the area for a landfill seem to have subsided.
Recovery Plan Status:
Plan approved 9/9/86.
