Campus News
Succulent savior
Climate change and poachers are wreaking havoc with a rare and enigmatic plant, but researcher Stephen McCabe is part of an ambitious effort to save it from extinction.
Stephen McCabe scrambled up the crumbling cliff in Ventura County, hoping the volcanic rock would hold and his instincts would prove him right.
An experienced climber and a researcher with UC Santa Cruz’s Environmental Studies Department, McCabe was part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project to ensure the survival of the rare silvery-green succulent, Verity’s Dudleya, which had been nearly wiped out by the 2013 Springs Fire and then hit by alleged poachers a while later.
Sure enough, McCabe, who is also emeritus director of research at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden, found a subpopulation of Verity’s Dudleya on the cliff face, marking a small victory in the fight to preserve this federally protected plant.
But it’s not just Verity’s Dudleya that’s in trouble. Many species of Dudleya are being endangered, not only by climate change and but also by bands of poachers who have stolen thousands of the these plants. A single mature Dudleya currently can cost up to $50 on the black market in China and South Korea, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The ‘panda bear of plants’
Not only is McCabe considered an expert on the Dudleya, which is the panda bear of plants—cute, charismatic, and rare—but he also is at the forefront of efforts to save the succulent. He consults with state and federal agencies, has helped safely replant some of the wild Dudleya stolen by poachers, and has collected thousands of seeds from the threatened plants. Some of the seeds, like those from Ventura County, have been placed in seed banks to preserve them in case of extinction. But others from different species have been cultivated by McCabe, who harvests seeds from those plants, and then gives them away to nurseries and organizations in hopes of smothering the succulent smuggling trade.