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1 ACULEATA (CACTACEAE), PERESKIA LOWER GRANDE TEXAS THE VALLEY OF RIO IN me On May 1996 landowner told he had cactus climbing a field trip, a 1 1 The on of land which had never been cleared. site 3-3 into trees a tract is km The owner Willacy County, Texas, U.S.A. stated northwest of Sebastian, many wooded and residence had been in the family for that the tract his Nor grow around and the cactus had not been planted. did the years it The now surrounded by of Upland Cotton, Gossypuim residence. tract fields is & Hubbard hinutum and Grain Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor L. var. durra L., Rehd. That found the hanging Ptsoma-\\ke leaves with little trouble. is, the I me found wick- found times searched until the small spines several as I I edly-spined stems and areoles largely hidden in guinea grass {Pamcum maxi- The mum The stems climb into branch, and spread like vines. trees, ^zca^.). ends with hooked spines hang down within two meters of the distal leafy, ground. William MacWhorter identified as Pereskia aculeata Miller, it lemonvine. Benson (1982) gives the range only as "Carribean Tropical For- and where the species has escaped cultivation in Florida. est" cites localities West and Britton and Rose (1963) give the range as the Indies Atlantic HoUis South America. Bravo (1937) indicates and Carribean Coasts of it is Gulf encountered in the wild in the littoral regions of the of Mexico.) woodland dominated by sugar The the plow. habitat typical of riparian is Willd.) with ground cover of guinea grass. hackberry laevigata a {Celtis may an ancient channel of the Rio Grande. This habitat be a relict reflecting 1% (Turner 1982). The Willacy sandy loam, to slopes et al. fine soil is Where ground cover mostly subshrubs such as undisturbed, the natural is and pigeonberry {Rivina humilis L.) and chaff-flower {Achyranthes aspera L.), paspalum (Paspalum (Fourn.) Nash), clumps of rusty-seeded langei scattered Buchoz manzanita {Malpighta glabra and tropical sage {Salvia coccinea L.), A ex Etlinger). list of all species found on the tract appears in Ideker (1996). NW km TEXAS. Willacy of Sebastian, Voucher specimens: Pereskia aculeata: Co.: 3.3 1 NW km TEXAS. May ABRII. Achyranthes Willacy Co.: 3-3 of 1996, Ideker aspera: ABR05 May (BRIT). Sebastian, 11 1996, Ideker TX 78540-1433, —Joe Native Plant P.O. Box 1433, Edinburg, Project, Ideker, U.S.A. N.L. and Rose. 1963. ' J.N. , 1937. Las cactaceas de Mexico. Univ. ABR Vegetation of the Willacy tract, ' H. Hyde, and Jacobs. 1982. L. Soil J.