NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A photo of a t-shirt allegedly being sold at a Socorro, NM Walmart has raised some eyebrows on Reddit. The graphic tee reads “New Mexico” and shows a desert landscape with cactuses. However, the cactuses pictured are saguaros, which are known only to grow in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Mexico.
But why can’t a saguaro grow in New Mexico? “It’s all about the cold tolerance,” said Curator of Plants for the ABQ BioPark Maria Thomas. “It’s like tiger versus cheetah. They’re both big cats but the environment that they’ve adapted to is very different.”
Thomas said a plant must be cold-hardy for our climate. “There’s some agaves, for example, that grow in Mexico and they are like understory agaves, and so they’re not exposed to the cold and they’re not exposed to the extreme heat,” said Thomas.
She said a plant’s USDA hardiness can tell you what the minimum temperature a plant can tolerate is, but New Mexico is a unique situation. “The thing that’s different with our climate, as to other climates that might be in [our] same climate zone, is we get these freezing cold winds and they happen in conjunction with these warm spring days, so it sends mixed signals to some of these non-native desert succulents,” said Thomas. “They just can’t take heating up and sudden freeze drop.”
Find a handful of cactuses that grow well here in New Mexico below.
Whale’s Tongue Agave | Photo by Scott Brown
Spineless Prickly Pear | Photo by Scott Brown
Santa Rita | Photo by Scott Brown
Mountain Yucca | Photo by Scott Brown
Teddy Bear Cholla | Photo by Scott Brown
Beavertail Opuntia Basilaris | Photo by Scott Brown
Banana Yucca | Photo by Scott Brown
Baby Rita | Photo by Scott Brown
Artichoke Agave | Photo by Scott Brown
