Chihuahuan Desert

Lloyd, F. E. "Guayule ( Parthenium argentatum Gray) A rubber-plant of the Chihuahuan Desert". Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1911, 213 pp. 

Larrea tridentata occurs throughout the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts. Its distribution extends from southern California northeast through southern Nevada to the southwest corner of Utah and southeast through southern Arizona and New Mexico to western Texas and north-central Mexico. It is known to attain ages of several thou-... 

The Spaniards made very determined efforts to stamp out peyote practices. Over a period of two centuries, a great many Indians were flogged and sometimes killed when they persisted in using it In one instance, an Accaxee s eyeballs were said to be gouged out after three days of torture "then the Spaniards cut a crucifix pattern in his belly and turned ravenous dogs loose on his innards. With the breakup of the Mesoamerican civilizations and their extensive transportation and communication routes, peyote distribution was interrupted, and familiarity with the cactus receded to the Chihuahuan Desert. 

Candelilla wax or cerote is a scaly coating on the stems and leaves of some members of the genus Euphorbia that grow in the hot, dry Chihuahuan desert of northern Mexico and the southwestern USA. The waxy coating protects the plant from dehydration in the fierce sun and wind. To remove the wax, the entire plant is boiled in water, with mild sulfuric acid added. The wax is skimmed from the surface of the liquid and dried. 

Ji, W., Benedict, C.R. and Foster, M.A. (1993) Seasonal variations in rubber biosynthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase and rubber transferase activities in Parthenium argentatum in the Chihuahuan Desert. Plant Physiol, 103, 535-42. 

Whitford W. G., Steinberger Y., and Ettershank G. (1982) Contributions of subterranean termites to the economy of Chihuahuan desert ecosystems. Oecologia 55, 298-302. 

Brook et al. (1990) found pollen grains incorporated in the pore spaces within the speleothem fabric. Since the age of the encapsulating calcite could be determined by U/Th methods, the age of the pollen could also be determined far beyond the usual limitation of carbon-14 dating. From pollen speciation in speleothems. Brook et al. concluded that the Chihuahuan Desert of southwestern United States and the Kalahari Desert of northwestern Botswana were wetter during northern hemisphere glacial and interstadial times. In contrast, wetter conditions in the Somali-Chalbi Desert corresponded with interglacials and to a lesser extent with interstadials. 

Peyote s native environment is restricted to the Chihuahuan desert, a region extending from the South Texas frontier into North Central Mexico. Never overabundant even in its natural habitat, it takes about thirteen years for a peyote cactus to attain a diameter of four inches. 

The Ladder Ranch is a major connector in another arm of the Wildlands Project, the Sky Islands Wildlands Network, which straddles Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Sky Islands is an attempt to link wildlife corridors, reserves, and islands of mountainous habitats spanning four diverse ecosystems the northern temperate Rocky Mountains region, the southern subtropical Sierra Madre, the Sonoran Desert, and the Chihuahuan Desert. The area is a major repository of biodiversity, including half the bird species in North America. Ladder Ranch also has a captive breeding facility for Mexican wolves destined for release on Turner s land and federal lands. Some of Turner s wolves have been reintroduced at Kieran Suckling s... 

In her book about the Big Bend region, which is in the Chihuahuan desert, Virginia Madison includes a chapter on the Botany of the Big Bend that describes some of the other more interesting plants found here. Presumably, some or all of these unique plants should be further studied for their medicinal properties. 

McCraw, D. J. (1985). Phytogeographyic history of Larrea in southwestern New Mexico illustrating the historical expansion of the Chihuahuan Desert. M.A. thesis. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. 

Opuntia iindheimeri Chihuahuan Desert Mason County, TX... 

Chihuahuan Desert), F Florida and A Australia. Genome sizes are sums of chromosomal sizes. Chromosomes are marked with an X corresponding to the molecular weight of the hand. 

Campos-Lopez E, Roman-Alemany A 1980 Organic chemicals from the Chihuahuan desert. J Agr Food Chem 28 171-183... 

Northern Mexico and adjacent USA Tamaulipan thorn scrub and east-central Chihuahuan desert Piedmont dry forest Argentina and Bolivia Misiones dry forest Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil Mexican pine-oak woodlands... 

FIGURE 4.8 Shift in proportion of 12 Sonoran and 10 Chihuahuan species of arid-adapted rodents across the southwestern United States hetween latitudes 31°N and 32°N. The pocket mouse Chaetodipus intermedius occurs in the Sonoran subregion of the Sonoran Desert and the Chihuahuan and Trans-Pecos subregions of the Chihuahuan Desert (see Figure 4.1). 

Holmgren, C.A., Norris, J., and Betancourt, J.L. (2007) Inferences about winter temperatures and summer rains from the late Quaternary record of C4 perennial grasses and C3 desert shrubs in the northern Chihuahuan Desert Journal of Quaternary Science, 22 141-161. 

Morafka, D.J. (1974) A biogeographical analysis of the Chihuahuan Desert through its her-petofauna. Unpubhshed Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California. 

Morafka, D.J. (1977b) Is there a Chihuahuan Desert A quantitative evaluation through a her-petofaunal perspective. In Transactions of the Symposium on the Biological Resources of the Chihuahuan Desert Region, United States and Mexico (eds. R.H. Wauer and D.H. Riskind), National Park Service Transactions and Proceedings Series 3, Washington, DC, pp. 437-454. 

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