Key Largo tree cactus no longer exists in US: 'My eyes bugged out'

A tropical cactus that was once found in the Florida Keys no longer exists in the United States, save for some conservation collections, a field biologist told Fox News Digital this week.

The Key Largo tree cactus was wiped out by rising sea levels in the region, among other factors, according to Jennifer Possley, who wrote about its demise in a paper published earlier this month in the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

Possley is director of regional conservation at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, near Miami. She's part of a group of scientists and researchers who collectively have studied the species since it was first discovered at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in 1992.

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"Which sounds crazy in some ways," Possley told Fox News Digital, considering the Key Largo tree cactus was two stories tall and as wide as a few cars. 

"But it was in a super isolated area in this pocket within some tall mangroves," she said. "So nobody in their right mind would have walked past it."

The Key Largo cactus tree, seen here through the years since its discovery in 1992, is no longer present in the U.S., according to a field biologist. (Susan Kolterman; Trudy Wilson/Florida Park Service; Susan Kolterman)

Nobody knows for sure how long the Key Largo tree cactus had been there, but Possley said it was likely decades and "could have been there for 100 years."

The Florida Keys is home to at least eight species of cacti, and sea-level rise is a known threat to many rare plant populations there, according to the paper.

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In 2007, when Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden helped Florida's state parks monitor the cacti population, the Key Largo tree cactus – known by its scientific name "Pilosocereus millspaughii" – was "doing great," Possley said. "And it did great for a few years."

It was clear that "something was eating the cactus."

By 2012, Possley said, it "had started to go downhill a little bit, but nothing alarming."

However, by 2015, it was clear to Possley and the others that "something was eating the cactus."

The Key Largo tree cactus was two stories tall and as wide as a few cars, said field biologist Jennifer Possley, shown in inset. (Susan Kolterman)

"My eyes bugged out because [there were] extensive marks and damage to the point where it killed a lot of the plant," she said.

Although it should have recovered, Possley said, the cactus continued to decline – the result of some major hurricanes and "king tides."

By 2019, "there was actually salt water lapping at the roots of the plants, which we had never seen before," Possley said.

In July 2023, it became apparent the Key Largo tree cactus would not survive, Possley said. 

"The other cacti in the region … are threatened with a similar fate."

"Its decline and ensuing extirpation correspond with rising sea levels in the region," the paper said.

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"The other cacti in the region, and all rare plants in the Florida Keys, are threatened with a similar fate."

But it's unfair to solely blame sea-level rise, Possley clarified.

A Florida park ranger stands next to some damaged Key Largo tree cacti, which could grow to be two stories tall, as seen on the right. (James Lange/Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Susan Kolterman)

"We really think that the reason this cactus has disappeared was from a combination of events, including sea-level rise," she said. 

"And the herbivory was certainly part of that. The passing hurricanes were also definitely contributors."

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Possley said the Key Largo tree cactus "is probably not going to be the first species we lose to the complications from sea-level rise." 

She said there are "quite a few plants" in the Keys that are "significantly imperiled."

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"This was a really cool species that we could claim as part of our botanical heritage here in South Florida," she said. "And it's gone."

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Although it has vanished from the U.S. ecosystem, the Key Largo tree cactus is technically not extinct.

It lives on in coastal areas of Cuba and the Bahamas, as well as in conservation collections like the one at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Possley noted.