The First Cactus

THE FIRST CACTUS
[a slightly modified excerpt from my self-published book, Splendor in Spines - Few copies printed. I doubt many remain.]

It is unlikely that the typical Scottish clansman knows that the thistle, the National Flower of Scotland, lent its name to a bizarre plant discovered on a tropical island half a world away. And who would believe that it was Christopher Columbus, on his last voyage across the ocean blue, who brought this curiosity to Europe? Or do the citizens of Germany know that it was their native son who first described and illustrated this remarkable plant from Jamaica, and who coined the now famous word, Cactus? No, probably not. And, do the citizens of Jamaica celebrate their native plant that is the founding species for science of what are arguably the most famous plants in all the world - The Cactus Family? Lamentably, no. How could they? The story is only about to be told.

Exploration of distant and foreign places has always been a risky and dangerous business. Its history is rife with calamity and misfortune. Still, it is easier to be the discoverer of new things if you are the first explorer of foreign regions. And although Christopher Columbus mistakenly insisted that his voyages across the Atlantic west of Spain were to a place already well known, India (thusly the origin of the Isles called the West Indies), his mistake led to the discovery and naming of the first cactus.

It was like this. After sailing west from Spain in 1502, Columbus arrived in the Caribbean with a ship in utter disrepair as a result of termites and storm damage. So, he put ashore in Jamaica. He spent a year there to organize a return to Spain, during which time he was undoubtedly introduced to the native people of Jamaica, and the native flora and fauna. Then as now, exotica was met with fascination, and having failed to find abundant riches in gold and silver, or a new passage to India for that matter, what else was Christopher Columbus to do than fill the coffers for Queen Isabella, who had funded the expedition, with the exotica before him? And so he did. One of the most outlandish botanical curiosities that he brought had a body somewhat like a melon, and was adorned with fierce prickles like a thistle. Not surprisingly, Europeans soon called it a Melon Thistle.

In 1504, after spending a year in Jamaica, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain and brought with him the Melon Thistle. It was a sort of sensation, and was assiduously cultivated, and shared when possible. In 1588, Jacob Theodor Tabernaemontanus, a Prussian doctor and botanist, described and depicted the Jamaican Melon Thistle in his decoratively illustrated, Krauter Buch (Herb Book). With great care, Tabernaemontanus described the plants in his Krauter Buch in Latin, German, and English. For the Melon Thistle, he gave its German name - Melonendistel, its English name - Hedgehog Thistle, and crucially, in Latinized Greek - Echino melocactus. The Greek word for thistle is kaktos, which Tabernaemontanus had translated to Latin as cactus. It was an important moment in botanical history

165 years after Tabernaemontanus, Carl Linnaeus published his Species Plantarum, and renamed Echino melocactus (Hedgehog Melon Thistle) as Cactus melocactus (Melonthistle Thistle), the name of which was somewhat redundant. It became even more redundant when it was renamed Melocactus melocactus (Melonthistle Melonthistle). This awkwardness was sort of fixed in 1991 when the Jamaican Melon Thistle was renamed, brace yourself, Melocactus carol-linnaei, Linnaeus' Melonthistle. One wonders what Dr. Tabernaemontanus would have had to say about that? Or Christopher Columbus? Or the citizens of Jamaica? Why not name the first-ever described cactus for the land from which it came and where it sill resides - Melocactus jamaicensis. It is a song in itself and is wholly appropriate. Yeah, I know. That'll be the day.

According to Doctor Werner Rauh, in the foreword to his book, Kakteen an ihren Standorten, 1979, Melocactus was once called Mutzencactus. The German word, mutzen has a dual use. It can mean the type of woven cap that has a little ball at the top. When donned upon the head, the hat has the appearance of a Melocactus. Mutzen also refers to a small, sweet, melon-shaped pastry, from which the mutzen cap obtained its name.

References:

Posted on December 18, 2023 03:50 PM by mjpapay mjpapay
Member of the iNaturalist Network   |   Powered by iNaturalist open source software |   Documentation for developers