Cacti - Ohio Guy?

I am not Ohio Guy, but...You'll notice that the cacti grow in the arid sections of the islands, like our beloved east end. You might have noticed that folks on the north side will talk about rain that we never see. We do have palm trees and beautiful beaches, too!

As I understand it, the seeds get carried all around the world on jet stream air currents and in upddrafts of storms. I've been told that a few years ago, lots of grasshoppers were here on St. Croix and were brought in by a tropical storm that started in Africa. The grasshoppers are now gone, probably because the environment was not right for them. They didn't have the right food or perhaps predators eat them.

It's sort of the same with the cacti. If the seeds blow in and land on the ground and the climate is right, they grow and reproduce. We have the right climate on the east end. It's rocky and sandy and consequently well drained, which is the right root environment for cacti and succulents. Seeds might land and sprout on the west end, but eventually, it becomes too rainy, which helps fungi and bacteria to reproduce, and these kill the seedlings. So, you see cacti on the dry east end but not on the wetter west end.

Incidentally, no one knows if coconut palm trees are from the Pacific or the Altlantic/Caribbean. The seeds (which are actually not nuts, but fruits or drupes with one seed inside) fall on the beach, get carried out to sea, and travel thousands of miles in the water currents. Then they wash up on a beach somewhere, and if the environment is right, they sprout, grow into trees, produce fruits, drop fruits, and repeat the process. In nature, they only grow on the beach because the fruits, which are heavy, can't get up any higher onto the land.

STX Guy - thanks for the heads up. So the cacti that inhabit the deserts of the western US got there because they blew in from somewhere and stayed because the climate was right for them?

East Ender, yes I've heard that about the North Side....and I was tempted by the "lush" vegetation - more like STJ where I'd really like to live........but heh, I'm getting used to "our end"....and you were one of those in my early days on this board that suggested the East End to me...........will I finally meet you in person at the get-together on Tuesday????

Something else I forgot to mention. Never sit directly under a coconut tree. A fruit can fall on your head and kill you. Seriously, people have been killed.