Escobaria duncanii - Sierra County, NM - November 2024

This inaugural post documents a recent trip to search for a rare native New Mexican cacti in Sierra County and highlights some of the other wonderful plants encountered along the way. The population of Escobaria duncanii we were in search of suffered considerable loss in February of 2011 due to an extreme cold weather event. 

The once-in-50-year winter storm that took place from January 30th to February 3 in 2011 was widespread over an area of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and into Mexico. 88 consecutive hours were recorded below freezing in the city of Albuquerque and much colder in northern New Mexico. Winds made the cold feel even colder with wind chills of -20ºF to -50ºF. 

The area where Escobaria duncanii lives roughly 150 miles south of Albuquerque. This population is considered to be the only known colony of E. duncanii in New Mexico with its nearest neighboring population 420 miles away in west Texas.. 

On a recent Facebook post in the New Mexico Cactus and Succulent Society group (one of the reasons I still have a Facebook account is this community’s posts), someone asked “why this location”? So far from the larger distributions in Texas? How and why did it decide to grow here on this mountainside? Some ponder that perhaps birds have carried the brightly colored fruit that great distance easily.

Here’s a slide from 1980 a friend recently posted on Facebook of E. duncanii from the spot we intended to visit.

His caption: Escobaria duncanii from another 45 year old slide. This only grows on one tiny spot near Truth or Consequences. Most locations for this species are in the Big Bend area of Texas down into Coahuila. They love to grow in tight rock cracks in limestone.

Back to 2024… 

We set out the day after Thanksgiving to see what we could find of the population. I drove to ABQ from Pecos, hopped in a buddy Steve’s car to make the way down to Sierra County to meet Zach, a fellow field exploring buddy visiting from Brooklyn, New York, and his partner’s father, Pear. We ate a variety of green chile smothered sandwiches at our meeting spot and then headed off to scout our site. It took some time to find our way on the dusty, rocky back roads but we eventually found a good path.

Not long after, we were making our way up a semi-steep SW facing slope. The climb was only 500 or so feet but it was quite steep in places. We hiked up very craggy, tiered rock faces and up some areas covered with scree that was small and made for difficult climbing. The craggy tiered rock faces were great for climbing as they provided a lot of traction and tooth for moving upward easily, “but not great for falling” as Zach said. The surfaces are like monster sized sand paper.

We saw some lovely specimens on our ascent, tucked into and growing out of the rocks.

Echinocereus coccineus growing out of the rock face.

It’s interesting to learn what you learn. I’ve started to get a good sense of what likes to grow where. It’s a skill that develops as we spend more time in the field observing plants in habitat. So soon upon coming to the crest, I felt we were getting close. I could feel the terrain becoming more and more ripe for the plants we were looking for. And we began to spot Epithilantha micromeris, one of my favorite cacti.

They were chonky little guys.

The thing I love about Epithilantha micromeris is how the white super-compact spination completely hides the stem and also the little hot pink fruit sticking out of the center of the plant. I also love the way the spines form to a little peak in the center top of the plant, making for a little punk moment.

When crested, the fruit lines the top of the plant (see here one of my plants in cultivation in fruit).

Once we found one E. micromeris, we began to see many tucked in among the parched rock. 

So advantageous, these plants, with their seed finding the perfect place to collect water, germinate and grow with protection.

Very close to Epithilantha micromeris we began to see Escobaria duncanii - the one who we came to see about. A glorious find! They are very small - about 1-1.5 cm at the largest. So tiny, so spiny, a gorgeous cacti in glorious miniture.

After coming across a good many of E. duncanii, we were elated and satisfied with the findings and made our way down a way-too-steep descent back to the car. We noted to find a more gradual grade down next time, but we enjoyed the Nolina microcarpa and Fouquieria splendens along the way down. We parted ways and started the trip back home north.

While I was a budding naturalist in early 2011 and getting a native and cold hardy plant education while working at Santa Fe Greenhouses - a local, beloved nursery, RIP - I wasn’t in a major phase of keeping plants yet, and definitely not doing the field observing I am so into now. I say this because I was not privy to the impact a major cold weather event like the one in February 2011 could have on the plants under my care, let alone on our native plant communities. 

This plant-blindness, a bias not uncommon in many of us humans, does not consider or prioritize plant life along-side the animal and human communities. Awareness can help understand our ecology more and more and the interconnectedness of all things, in addition to bringing more funding to conservation efforts for endangered species. 

Escobaria duncanii is back on the rise after the destructive winter of 2011. The seed bank was there to bring the population back, fortunately. May it continue to thrive and be safe from ecological threats, but also the human based impacts like collection/poaching and habitat destruction.