Bradleya 35/2017 pages 58–79 New records of naturalised and invasive cacti (Cactaceae) from Gran Canaria and Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain Filip Verloove 1, Elizabeth Ojeda-Land 2, Gideon F. Smith 3,4 , Alessandro Guiggi 5, Jorge Alfredo Reyes-Betancort 6, Carlos Samarín 2, Antonio González Hernández 7 & Rubén Barone 8 1. Botanic Garden of Meise, Nieuwelaan 38, B-1860 Meise, Belgium. (email: [email protected]) 2. Viceconsejería de Medio Ambiente. Gobierno de Canarias. C/ Avda. de Anaga, 35. Planta 11. 38071 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. (email: [email protected]; [email protected]) 3. Centre for Functional Ecology, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Universidade de Coimbra, 3001- 455 Coimbra, Portugal. (email: [email protected]) 4. Department of Botany, P.O. Box 77000, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, 6031 South Africa. 5. DISTAV, Polo Botanico, Università degli Studi di Genova, International Cactaceae Research Center (ICRC), Corso Dogali, 1M - 16136 Genova, Italy. (email: [email protected]) 6. Jardín de Aclimatación de La Orotava (ICIA). C/ Retama 2, 38400 Puerto de la Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain. (email: [email protected]) 7. Servicio de Sanidad Vegetal. Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca del Gobierno de Canarias, Avda. José Manuel Guimerá 10, 3ª planta 38071 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. (email: [email protected]) 8. C/. Eduardo Zamacois, 13-3ºA, 38005 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. (email: [email protected]) Summary : Recent field work in Gran Canaria and Zusammenfassung : Bei jüngsten Feldstudien auf Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) yielded records Gran Canaria und Teneriffa (Kanarische Inseln, for 30 alien taxa of Cactaceae that had not been Spanien) wurden 30 nicht indigene Taxa von reported before, either from the whole area, or Cactaceae nachgewiesen, die bisher weder vom from one of the islands. Out of these, 17 are con - Gesamtarchipel noch von einer der beiden Inseln sidered locally naturalised and/or potentially in - gemeldet waren. Von diesen werden 17 als lokal vasive: Cylindropuntia bigelovii , C. fulgida , C. eingebürgert und / oder potenziell invasiv ange - pallida , C. prolifera , C. tunicata , Echinocereus sehen: Cylindropuntia bigelovii , C. fulgida , C. pal - rigidissimus , Haageocereus kagenekii , Hylocereus lida , C. prolifera , C. tunicata , Echinocereus triangularis , Opuntia basilaris , O. elatior, O. rigidissimus , Haageocereus kagenekii , Hylocereus ficus-indica × O. tomentosa , O. macrocentra , O. triangularis , Opuntia basilaris , O. elatior , O. microdasys , O. pilifera , Oreocereus pseudofossu - ficus-indica × O. tomentosa , O. macrocentra , O. latus , Tephrocactus articulatus and Trichocereus microdasys , O. pilifera , Oreocereus pseudofossu - huascha . The same applies to a rather character - latus , Tephrocactus articulatus und Trichocereus istic form of O. ficus-indica that sometimes is re - huascha . Das Gleiche gilt für eine sehr charakte - ferred to as f. amyclaea (syn.: O. megacantha ). The ristische Form von O. ficus-indica , die manchmal presence of Opuntia monacantha and O. robusta , als f. amyclaea (syn.: O. megacantha ) bezeichnet two species with a dubious status in the Canary wird. Zehn weitere Taxa, oft Anbaurelikte, gelten Islands, is confirmed. Ten further taxa are con - als nicht eingebürgert. Alle Taxa sind abgebildet, sidered casuals, often relics of cultivation. All taxa zu den eingebürgerten und / oder potenziell inva - are illustrated, and for the naturalised and/or po - siven Taxa erfolgen weitere Informationen. Zwei tentially invasive taxa additional information is neue Kombinationen werden vorgeschlagen: Cy - provided. Two new combinations are proposed for lindropuntia fulgida f. mamillata und Tephro - Cylindropuntia fulgida f. mamillata and Tephro - cactus articulatus f. papyracanthus . cactus articulatus f. papyracanthus . 58 Bradleya 35/2017 Introduction (Willd.) Haw., also in the Canary Islands; see The Canary Islands, Spain, have a well-docu - later]. Two others, O. tuna and Austrocylindrop - mented and rich native flora with many local, untia cylindrica , probably refer to respectively highly specialized endemic species (e.g. erroneous records, or are only very locally natu - Bramwell, 1976; Beltrán et al ., 1999). In addition, ralised. The remaining species have been con - as a result of their subtropical climate, the is - firmed by the authors of the present paper. In the lands are an outstanding cultivation ground for past few years some additional species of cacti hundreds of ornamental subtropical plant have been recorded: Cylindropuntia prolifera species. An increasing number of these are not (Engelm.) F.M. Knuth and Opuntia microdasys only well-adapted to be cultivated in the local cli - (Lehm.) Pfeiff. from Fuerteventura (Verloove & mate, but are indeed reproducing locally without Guiggi, 2013), O. leucotricha DC. from Gran Ca - human intervention, eventually naturalising, naria, La Palma, and Tenerife (Verloove, 2013; spreading, or even becoming invasive. In past Santos-Guerra et al ., 2014), and Espostoa years the knowledge about these alien species melanostele from Tenerife (Verloove, 2016). has considerably increased and numerous ac - In the past few years some of us discovered counts have been published (e.g. Verloove & several escaped cacti in Tenerife and Gran Ca - Reyes-Betancort, 2011; Santos-Guerra et al ., naria that had not previously been recorded in 2013; Scholz et al ., 2013; Siverio Núñez et al ., the Canary Islands. Their identities were as - 2013; Verloove, 2013; González Montelongo et al ., sessed in close collaboration with two of the au - 2014; Santos-Guerra et al ., 2014; Santos-Guerra thors (G.F. Smith and A. Guiggi) . In the present & Reyes-Betancort, 2014; Otto & Verloove, 2016). paper 30 taxa are presented and illustrated, However, some taxonomic groups are still insuf - most of them not previously reported from the ficiently known. This certainly holds true for in - Canary Islands. Their degree of naturalisation troduced succulents, despite the fact that the varies from ephemerals to locally, or potentially, islands have an ideal climate that allows the per - invasive aliens. In the absence of species-specific sistence and acclimatization of numerous species, pollinators, some of the species are able to spread especially those from arid and hot habitats. The by vegetative means, and their establishment southern parts of Tenerife, for instance, have cli - could be favoured by climate change (Capdevila- matological circumstances comparable with those Argüelles et al. , 2011; Del-Arco, 2008). Several in Arizona, U.S.A. Unsurprisingly, the island species of cacti are among the most damaging in - houses the most important producer for cacti and vasive plant species in the world (Novoa et al ., succulents worldwide (Canary Cactus S.A.). 2015) and some, for instance the whole genus Moreover, Spain is considered one of the three in - Cylindropuntia , are included in Spanish legisla - vasion hot spots for cacti in the world (Novoa et tion on invasive alien species (B.O.E., 2013). al ., 2015; see also Essl & Kobler, 2008). Therefore, it is important to document any in - Not a single species of the family Cactaceae is cipient invasion event of cacti, even in early native to the Canary Islands, although two stages. species have become a very familiar sight. Opun - It is noteworthy that likely most, if not all, the tia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. and O. dillenii (Ker- plants catalogued in this paper have a cultivated Gawl.) Haw. were introduced quite long ago, and origin, including from commercial nurseries with now have invaded large parts of the islands. propagation facilities on the Canary Islands. It is While O. dillenii is mostly confined to the lower therefore possible that, at least in some in - altitudes, the former is omnipresent, even at stances, the plants may not perfectly agree with higher altitudes. Eriksson et al . (1979), later botanical taxa as known from the wild (Roy Mot - merely repeated with a nomenclatural update by tram, personal communication). In these circum - Acebes Ginovés et al . (2010), cited the names of stances, hybridisation through open pollination nine cactus species for the Canary Islands: Aus - in fields may well have given rise to hybrids that, trocylindropuntia cylindrica (Lam.) Backeb., A. sometimes through introgression and backcross - exaltata (Berg) Backeb., Hylocereus undatus ing, resemble one of the parents. (Haw.) Britton & Rose, Opuntia dillenii , O. max - ima Mill., O. robusta H.L. Wendland, O. tomen - Materials and methods tosa Salm-Dyck, O. tuna (L.) Mill., and O. Once harvested, virtually all species of cacti vulgaris Mill. Of these, O. maxima auct. and O. are awkward to preserve as dried specimens for vulgaris auct. non Mill. are now referred to O. deposition in a herbarium, and most of the records ficus-indica [although the binomial O. vulgaris here reported are only documented with photo - has also been associated with O. monacantha graphs, unless otherwise stated. Bradleya 35/2017 59 The presence or absence on the islands of Gran habit, to 1.5 m high, larger branches c. 5cm across, Canaria or Tenerife was each time compared with larger yellowish-green flowers, 3-4cm across and data provided by Acebes Ginovés et al . (2010), as its smaller fruit, c. 2cm across. The fruit is densely well as other literature sources. The paper is di