Desert Plants, Volume 2, Number 3 (Autumn 1980) Item Type Article Publisher University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) Journal Desert Plants Rights Copyright © Arizona Board of Regents. The University of Arizona. Download date 09/10/2021 02:10:07 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/550746 Volume 2. Number 3. Autumn 1980 Desert Published by The University of Arizona for the Plants Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum Editorial - Stimulation of Desert Plant Research in the United States as a Little -known Result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 140 Dry Country Plants of the South Texas Plains Frank S. Crosswhite 141 Arboretum Progress 180 Distribution of the Boojum Tree, Idria columnaris, on the Coast of Sonora, Mexico as Influenced by Climate 183 Robert R. Humphrey and David B. Marx Ammobroma sonorae, an Endangered Parasitic Plant in Extremely Arid North America 188 Gary Nabhan Biomass Potential in Arizona 197 Kennith E. Foster, R. Leslie Rawles and Martin M. Karpiscak Reviews 201 Booium Trees (Idria columnaris) Drawing by Roberta January Humphrey see article on page 183 Subscriptions to Desert Plants To obtain a one -year subscription to Desert Plants, just send Sl0 to the address below Desert Plants Boyce Thompson SW Arboretum P.O. Box AB Superior, Arizona 85273 Make sure you provide your current address with zip code. If the subscription isa renewal, please say so to avoid receiving two copies of the same issue. In the case of gift subscriptions, we will send a letter to the recipient telling who is sending the gift, if this is requested. Of course, no extra charge. Editorial Stimulation of Desert Plant Research in the United between peoples of the United States and Russia. States as a Little -known Result of the Russian Revolu- When the man came back to this country, he estab- tion of 1917. In 1917, a United States citizen who had made lished non -profit charitable organizations devoted to plant his mark in developing mineral resources in Arizona and science research to alleviate world hunger and to serve as elsewhere, asked President Woodrow Wilson to suggest a permanent influences to educate the human race with re- charitable or philanthropic project in which he could place gard to using, improving and disseminating living plants a significant part of his wealth. Much to this man's sur- for the good of all. President suggested a mercy- mission to the Rus- In arid parts of Asia, the man was impressed with the sian people. The Russian Revolution was in progress. The uses that people made of the barely adequate natural vege- mining man agreed to finance a Red Cross team taking tation. He vowed then to get at the roots of human misery humanitarian help and medical supplies to the Russian and suffering in arid lands. The thought came to him of people. He went along as co- leader and was afforded the setting up an arid -land arboretum in which to assemble courtesy rank of Colonel. Because World War I was in and catalog dry country plants and inventory their uses. progress, the only peaceful route open to St. Petersburg Such an institution would serve as a living depository for involved landing on the Pacific Coast of Asia and making germplasm which would be made more available for utili- the long journey the breadth of what is now called the zation throughout the world. It would be an educational U.S.S.R. Few Americans then or today have seen the vast institution to help instill in mankind a better appreciation expanses of land, some arid or semi -arid, which the man for plants. It would actively engage in research on desert was exposed to. plants and would make the results available to mankind On the trip to Russia, the idea of devoting future chari- the world over. table contributions to plant science research, to better The man's life is told in the book The Magnate by Her- utilize the plant resources of the planet for the benefit of mann Hagedorn, published recently in paper -back form at mankind, was born. After dodging bullets in the streets of $4.95 by the Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum, St. Petersburg, the man reflected on the causes of unrest in one of the two plant science institutions that the man the world. The Germans were fighting for lebensraum. established. The other institution is presently located on The Russian people were fighting for their liberty and to the campus of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, gain control of their ancestral natural resources which had and was established as the Boyce Thompson Institute for been exploited by the Czar. After a brief political escapade Plant Research. Dr. Roy A. Young, formerly Chancellor of in Russia, funding the shaky Kerensky government with a the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, is the Managing large sum of money, the mining man from America Director. The Institute has researched the inner workings concluded that he had supported the losing side in the of plants, their chemistry and physiology, as well as their internal struggle. But his intentions had been to assist the relations with the environment. And always the mission Russian people. When the Bolshevik element came into of the two institutions has been to improve the lot of power, he recommended to the American government mankind at the very basic level, that relating to plant life. that it be recognized and that humanitarian aid be fun- William Boyce Thompson had a talent for identifying val- neled to the people through it. But President Wilson had a uable natural resources. He knew that only plants could "hands -off" policy with regard to the new government, a make sugar from air and water and that the future of man- process that was the beginning of a long- standing wedge kind depends on that fact. Crosswhite South Texas Plains 141 The semi -desert South Texas Plains vegetational Dry Country Plants division today encompasses large acreages of fruits and vegetables along the lower Rio Grande where irrigation is of the South Texas Plains possible and vast cattle ranches in the many square miles where water is more scarce. The present article discusses 1) the history of the region in relation to the native plants, 2) the uses of the native plants for food, fiber, shelter and Frank S. Crosswhite medicine, 3) the valuable native grasses which provided Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum forage for beginning the cattle industry in America, 4) the and Department of Plant Sciences, Tamaulipan Brushland element which provided habitat University of Arizona for mother cow giving birth to call, 5) the vegetation of the resacas and floodplain of the lower Rio Grande before con- version to fruits and vegetables, and 6) the native plants which have potential uses in landscaping. The Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca passed through the region in 1535. The Indians gave him clothing made of Algodón (Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum), a fiber which was to become a leading crop in Texas during the next 400 years. During World War II, the federal government or- dered ten million acres of cotton land converted to the raising of feed for livestock, and after the war much of the land was never returned to cotton but made to yield human food. Food crops for man are now exported in large quantities from the South Texas Plains to other parts of the United States. Native plants have figured prominently in the history of the South Texas Plains. Seventeen years before the Anglo colony of Jamestown was founded in North America, 200 Although annual rainfall in the South land- seeking Spaniards led by Gaspar Castaño de Sosa Texas Plains ranges from about 16 to 30 made their way through the vegetation of Mesquite inches, the distribution is often irregular. (Prosopis glandulosa) and semi -desert brush along the Rio This results in vegetation which must toler- Grande to cross into the South Texas Plains at the location ate long periods of drought. For example, at where the city of Del Rio now lies. The South Texas Plains Cotulla in La Salle County, there was an an- can be envisioned as an irregular triangle of land bounded nual accumulation of rain of only 2.82 roughly by Del Rio to the northwest, the historic Alamo inches in 1917, comparable to the precipita- [named for the native Cottonwood Tree, Populus tion at Yuma, Arizona. Torrential rains al- deltoides] and Gonzales County to the east, south to Re- ternate with periods of drought, however. In saca de la Palma [named for the native fan palm, Palma de Micharos, Sabal texans] and Palo Alto where historic 1954 runoff following Hurricane Alice battles preceding the founding of Brownsville touched off caused the Rio Grande to rise 50 to 60 feet in the Mexican War. This latter engagement due to the 48 hours at Eagle Pass and Laredo. In 1967, vegetation and topography (cf. Emory, 1859) and General when Hurricane Beaulah moved into the Zacchary Taylor's quick comprehension of the Sacatal South Texas Plains, a rain -gauge at Falfurrias (grassland) and Chaparral ( brushland) resulted in the rout in Brooks County measured 36 inches. In of the greatly superior Mexican forces. The treaty ending 1980, a long summer drought was broken by this conflict ceded not only the South Texas Plains to the heavy rains from Hurricane Allen. Sites sub- United States but the land between Texas and the Pacific ject to long periods of inundation followed Ocean as well. Some historians mark this event as one of by drying and cracking of the soil often have the turning points in the history of the world; had the vegetationofRetama(Parkinsonia United States been deprived of the resources in what be- came its western lands, history of the world would have aculeata) and Huisache (Acacia smallii = been greatly re- written.