Abstract
Trees growing in rocks without soil are uncommon. In two arid regions in Baja California, Mexico, field surveys found large numbers of rock-colonizing elephant trees (Pachycormus discolor (Benth.) Coville ex Standl. (Mexican name: copalquin) growing in igneous rocks (granite and basalt) as primary colonizers without the benefit of soil or with a very small amount of soil generated by their own growth. Many adult trees broke large granite boulders and were capable of wedging, growing in, and colonizing rocks and cliffs made of ancient lava flows. This is the first record of a tree species, apart from the previously recorded cacti, capable of primary colonization of rocks and rock rubble in hot deserts.
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References
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Acknowledgements
Yoav Bashan participated in this study in the memory of the late Messrs. Avner and Uzi Bashan from Israel. We thank J.L. Leon de la Luz of CIBNOR and C.Y. Li of USDA-Forest Service, Corvallis, Oregon for botanical information, Rocio Villalpando for collecting geographical information, and the editor at CIBNOR for improving the English text. This work was partially supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia of Mexico (CONACYT contract U39520-Z) and partially by the Bashan Foundation, Oregon, USA. The stay of H. Vierheilig in Mexico was partially funded by a KUWI grant of the BOKU in Austria.
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Bashan, Y., Vierheilig, H., Salazar, B.G. et al. Primary colonization and breakdown of igneous rocks by endemic, succulent elephant trees (Pachycormus discolor) of the deserts in Baja California, Mexico. Naturwissenschaften 93, 344–347 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0111-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0111-4