Strange Plants of Mexico

In a megadiverse country, you are spoiled for choice in looking at plants. There are 23,424 known, different variaties here, with more being discovered all of the time. We have selected just a few of the interesting ones to show you.

Bladderpod


Cleome Isomeris, aka Bladderpod, is mostly found in Baja California. By 'found', we mean whole fields and hillsides bathed in a vibrant yellow, as the Bladderpod spreads as far as the eye can see. They grow up to 6.5ft (2 meters) and they are gorgeous.

To the disappointment of small children everywhere, the 'bladder' part refers only to the shape of its seed-pod. Inside each of them, there are dozens of tightly packed seeds, just waiting to pop out.

Burro's Tail


Burro is the Mexican word for a donkey, hence the common name for Sedum Morganianum (though this is surely a missed opportunity to name it 'Knatty Dreadlock Plant'). It takes a second look to realise that those tendrils aren't woven. It's just a visual fallacy caused by the shape of the blue-green leaves. In season, there is also a red flower at the end.

The tendrils grow to nearly 2ft (60cm) and are often exported for use as foliage houseplants. It can be found throughout Southern Mexico.

Fishbone Cactus


It looks like it's all leaves and the occasional magnificent flower, but those green parts are actually branches. This is Epiphyllum anguliger, also known as the fishbone cactus. It flowers at night, and then only for a handful of nights each year.

In the wild, it is only found in the rainforests of Chiapas, at a high altitude. However, people do successfully cultivate it as a rare houseplant.

Jelly Bean Plant


Doesn't it look good enough to eat? This is Sedum Rubrotinctum, better known by its nicknames, the Jelly Bean Plant or Pork and Beans. Despite those tasty sounding names, it's better not to attempt to eat this plant. The 'jelly beans' are actually poisonous. Either ingesting or touching them might cause irritation.

It grows easily throughout Mexico and is one of the popular gardening exports. It will grow in any soil, except mud or swamp; however, it can't cope with frost. The leaves change color, from green to red, during the course of the year. Its flowers are bright yellow.

Little Hermit of Mexico


In 2005, a botanist, from St Louis, Missouri, in the USA, was on holiday in Mexico. He climbed up into the mountains east of Acapulco and found a strange, parasitic plant growing all over a tree. George Yatskievych, with a botanist's instinct, cut off a segment, then pressed and dried a whole specimum. Once he returned home, he attempted to find out what it was called. The world's experts didn't have a clue.

Wayt Thomas, from New York's Botanical Garden, did have a sneaking suspicion that it matched another specimum. That had been found in 1985 and hadn't been seen before nor since. They compared their plants and they matched. It's still being studied, but it appears to be an extremely rare, undocumented plant. It currently wears the moniker, 'Little Hermit of Mexico'. They are working on the Latin name.

It can be found in the Guerrero mountains, though you may be looking for days before you spot one.

Old Man Cactus


Ok, that's cheating just a little, as you're only seeing the top of Pachycereus Schottii, aka Senita Cactus, Whisker Cactus and Old Man Cactus. As it grows up to 21ft (6.4 meters) in height, and congregates in clumps around 15ft (4.6 meters) wide, you're unlikely to actually see the summit of the mature plants. It's very pretty though.

Here is the rest of it, growing around the base of a dead Ironwood Tree, in the Pinacate Biosphere Reserve, Sonora.


It is in bloom right now, with pale pink flowers showing from April until August. However, they only appear at night. Another feature of this cactus is that, as it ages, the spines at the top become quite large, in comparison to those at the bottom. These top heavy spines hang down, giving the impression of a long, flowing, white beard. Hence its nicknames of whisker cactus and old man cactus.

It can be found throughout Northern Mexico, including on the Baja California.

Shrimp Plant


This is Justicia Brandegeana, also known as the shrimp plant, because its flowers, well, look like a shrimp.

The flowers are white, but they grow from red bracts, which give it the illusion of a pink color. The bracts keep on extending for most of the year, until they reach around a foot (30cm) in length. Then the weight snaps it off and it falls to the ground.

This plant is a favorite of hummingbirds and butterflies. It can be found all over Mexico.

Teddy Bear Cholla


Is anyone else getting the impression of a load of cacti, who just saw the camera come out and rushed forward to pose? That one at the front definitely has a, 'Hey Mum!', aspect to it. Or maybe it's just me on one two many tequilas.

Despite the cuddly name, it's better not to hug a Teddy Bear Cholla. They are covered in spikes and so it might hurt. Not least because they have a habit of detaching ends of their stems to embed themselves into bare flesh; hence you should wear long trousers while walking anywhere near them. (Stong language warning for the below video.)



The spikes are about an inch long, densely covering a plant that is between 3 to 7 feet (1 to 2 m) tall. The jumping segments are around 10 inches (25 cm) long.

Teddy Bear Cholla can be found in the Sonora Desert.

Pancho Villa: Wild Roses, Tender Roses

Pancho Villa was angry. Pancho Villa was really angry. He had the governor of the state of Chihuahua, but he should be President of Mexico. He knew it. The people knew it. He suspected that even the President of the USA knew it; but the Americans had not only sided with Carranza, but had also sabotaged his own cause. As far as Villa was concerned, his former allies, the USA, were now his enemies.

But he could also use them. The USA had already invaded Veracruz. If Villa could spark more hostilities from their Northern neighbour, then even the war-weary Mexicans might rise up again en masse. With Carranza out, then Villa would have to take the country. He would have the popular vote.


Villa's troops amass in Agua Prieta.
There were a few skirmishes, notably up in Agua Prieta, Sonora, right on the border with Arizona, on 1 November 1915. Though the Americans were not openly lured into combat, they did provide much of the equipment used to repel Villa's men, including searchlights powered with American electricity.

Then, three months later, a train carrying American employees of the Mexican mining company ASARCO was attacked near Santa Isabel, in Chihuahua. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but he denied giving the command to kill the seventeen dead Americans. But worse was to come; and when it came, Villa did not deny a thing. He had invaded the USA.


On March 9th, 1916, Villa took 500 men on a raid into New Mexico, USA. The town of Columbus had a garrison of American cavalry attached to it and it was this which was targeted by Villa. In the early hours of the morning, the Villistas burst into the area, in a two-pronged attack on both town and garrison. Fierce fighting raged through the streets, with the Mexicans yelling, "¡Viva Villa!". It left the Americans in no doubt whatsoever as to who had arrived.

There are many twists and versions of this horrific event. Many chroniclers hailed it a defeat for Villa, as the Mexican dead far outstripped the American. But Columbus was practically razed to the ground and Villa escaped back into Mexico with the majority of his men. His objective had been to provoke the USA into invading Mexico and that was successful.


On March 14, 1916, the Mexican Expedition, or Pancho Villa Expedition, began, with American troops entering Mexico. Their sole objective was to find, capture and/or kill Pancho Villa. 4,800 ground troops took up the hunt, with military Curtiss "Jenny" airplanes providing aerial surveillance. But the countryside closed around Villa and the people hid him. For nearly a year, the American military searched before admitting defeat. On February 7, 1917, they finally withdrew empty-handed.


Contemporary cartoon depicting the Mexican Expedition
In the meantime, Villa had twice entered the US state of Texas and his raids had seen American dead.

Moreover, Carranza had not been happy about the American military wandering Mexico without his invitation. There were several battles between the Mexican Federal Army and the Americans. Diplomatic relations soured between Presidents Carranza and Wilson.

This reached a head, when one of Villa's officers sneaked a letter over the border, informing the Americans that Carranza was working with the German Empire. America had just been drawn into World War One, with Mexico nominally neutral. Villa's intelligence report stated that the Germans were going to use Mexico to attack the USA, thus keeping them from arming the Allied forces over in Europe.

The news was taken very seriously and, on August 27, 1918, violence erupted in the border split-town of Nogales. Half of this lies in Arizona, USA, and the other half in Sonara, Mexico. It was here that American troops met Mexican Federal troops, in the Battle of Ambos Nogales. By evening, Carranza's men surrendered and the fighting was over. The USA had won, but the humiliation was on both sides.


Nogales, showing the Mexican-American border through its center
Pancho Villa remained at large for the rest of his life. Despite substantion rewards offered by the American government and private individuals, he was never betrayed by the people of Mexico. There are unsubstantiated reports that he was also able to travel at will through some areas of the USA, especially California.

Nevertheless, his reputation was in tatters over the border. The 'Robin Hood' moniker was squashed under a wealth of new stories circulated about him. He was a mass rapist, who killed any woman who would not submit to him; he was nothing but a low-life leader of a criminal gang, akin to a Mafia Don; he was a murderer and a thief, with no value for human life; he had 26 wives and a score of illegimate children; he conspired with the Germans; he had no morals at all.

The American public turned against him, especially in the northern states, where he had never been personally known. Yet, even today, in the places where these attrocities were alleged to have taken place, Villa's name is uttered with respect. He appears, through the memories of the Mexican poor, as much a folk hero now, as he did then. Time has not tarnished the image and, as Hollywood prepares for another film about his, it has restored some of the gloss.


Carranza had never regained his lost credibility and so hadn't stood for re-election. However, the President had gone out of his way to try and discredit General Obregón, another popular revolutionary choice. Carranza's efforts including stripping Obregón of his rank and military honors, which only served to enhance the revolutionary's popularity.

Another uprising appeared imminient, but it ended quickly with a single battle between the forces of Obregón and Carranza. The President stepped down and fled towards Veracruz. He never made it, but was assassinated, in Puebla, by another revolutionary, Rodolfo Herrero. Obregón was elected and that signalled the end of the Mexican Revolution.


Obregón and his government
It was around this time that Pancho Villa announced his intention to retire from revolutionary life. There was no love lost between him and Obregón (the two had fought each other in battle a few times), but the signs were bright that Obregón was the president that Mexico needed.

There were a series of reforms passed which sought to finally realise some of the demands of the Revolution. He was even standing firm against the USA, over demands from their northern neighbour that article 27 of the Mexican Constitution; though other concessions were unpopular amongst his people, even while they salved US relations.

Villa knew that he couldn't become President of Mexico now. It would be like painting a giant bull's eye on his back, as that was a very public office for someone with such a bounty on his head. Instead, he disbanded his army, but for a small personal bodyguard, and withdrew with Sra. María Luz Corral de Villa and their children to a hacienda in Chihuahua. It had been awarded to him, as part of a peace agreement with the Mexican government, following the assassination of Carranza.


Pancho Villa and his wife, Maria Luz Corral de Villa
On July 20, 1923, Pancho Villa drove to the local bank, with just two bodyguards, to take out the wages for his hacienda staff. His car was ambushed and Villa died instantly, peppered with bullets, along with one of his men. It has never conclusively proved who killed him.

Places to Visit

* There is a statue of Pancho Villa, on horseback, in the city of Chihuahua.

* Cerro de la Bufa, Zacatecas. There is an aerial tramway to the memorial and museum dedicated to Pancho Villa here. A telescope can be used to survey the actual, arduous terrain that Villa needed to traverse in order to take the silver town.

* The Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution, in Chihuahua, has many artefacts belonging to Pancho Villa, including the bullet-ridden car, in which he was killed, and his death mask.

* Villa's grave is in Parral Cemetery, Hidalgo del Parral, in Chihuahua. However, his remains were removed from and buried under the Monumento a la Revolución (Monument of the Revolution), in Mexico City. He shares a mausoleum with other figures from this historical time, including Madero and Carranza.

* A Hollywood film, entitled 'Wild Roses, Tender Roses', is due to begin filming next year. It will tell the story of Pancho Villa.

Pancho Villa: The Second Mexican Revolution

It seemed that Pancho Villa could do no wrong. On both sides of the Mexican-American border, he was proclaimed a hero.

Years later, chroniclers and reporters would travel through Chihuahua, Durango and Sonara, collecting stories of orphans delivered to safety and given treats; of the robbed having their possessions returned; of widows and the elderly given money and care; of wrongs righted and justice served.

In the USA, Hollywood moguls jostled for the rights to tell the story of Pancho Villa. From Washington to California, there were people singing his praises. Viewed as a modern-day Robin Hood, Villa could get a free meal anywhere. This was before we even got to revolution.



For Villa, the rise of Huerta to the presidency was a personal matter. Not only had the man once framed Villa for horse theft and almost had him shot, but he had undone the meagre gains of the Mexican Revolution. Huerta's policies were more than a return to those of Díaz. It was a full on dictatorship, forged in blood and heavy-handed responses to any who criticized him.

Moreover, Huerta arrested and executed Abraham González. This academic had been the brains behind the proposed reforms of the Revolution. He had written a far-reaching Constitution, which would have helped the Mexican poor out of poverty. He had advised Madero and recruited Villa to the cause. Now he was dead. Much later, Villa was to hunt down González's remains and give him a proper funeral. Villa probably would have rode out anyway, but the murder of González sealed the deal.

Villa crossed into El Paso, Texas, in the USA, to make his plans. He was well respected there. He funded his army on beef and cattle sold to the Texans, who willingly paid in arms or money. As Villa's prestige grew, and Huerta's correspondingly fell, Villa even started producing his own currency, which was readily accepted in Texas. His coinage was good and stable. He also had a contract with a studio in Hollywood. They would film his revolution and he would receive 50% of the door profits to fund it.


By the time Villa crossed back into Ciudad Juárez, the call had gone out. This Division of the North had never officially disbanded after the first Revolution and it quickly reassembled. Villa was in touch with other discontented leaders, such as Venustiano Carranza, and he was well stocked with American fire-arms. It didn't take long for practically the entire north of Mexico to fall under rebel control, with Pancho Villa's name attached to many of the major battles. (His military prowess and genius at battle strategies was impressive enough for the American army to start studying them; then using them in training exercises amongst their own personnel.)

Huerta hadn't quite been the puppet president that the USA had anticipated. In fact, he had acted with downright hostility towards American businesses in Mexico. The Americans were concerned enough to station navy ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The situation was to reach its zenith in the Tampico Affair.


Tampico, in Tamaulipas, was the site of a large American oil refinery. As Villa and Carranza closed upon it, President Woodrow Wilson sent messages to Huerta to ask what he was going to do about it. Meanwhile, US navy ships rushed into the area to evacuate their civilians from the town. Federal Mexican troops, controlled ultimately by Huerta, raised their guns on an American ship, the USS Dolphin. There was no-one amongst them who spoke both Spanish and English, on either side, thus the Americans on board were arrested and taken into custody.

They were eventually released, but not without bad feeling on each side. Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo, of the US navy, demanded a written apology of Huerta and the placement of the Stars and Stripes to fly over Tampico. Huerta didn't respond, though the governor of Tampico did write the apology. All requests for the American flag to stand on Mexico soil were refused. President Woodrow Wilson ordered an invasion and American forces took Veracruz.


All the time, Villa and Carranza waited, not advancing, though it was obvious that they could have done. They were piling on the pressure in full knowledge of how the Americans would react. It forced Huerta to fight on too many fronts, without the backing of either his own people or their powerful northern neighbours. The people, en masse, were supporting Villa. It was his charisma and integrity which brought them from their fields; his strategy and generalship which won the battles; and the sheer presense of the man that foresaw a better future for Mexico. On 15 July 1914, Huerta bowed to the inevitable and fled the country.

It felt, at the time, that Villa was poised to become Mexico's next president. Wherever he went, the people would rush from their homes to cheer him. "¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva Villa!"


But there had already been some puzzling maneuvering along the chain of command. On the eve of Huerta's flight, Carranza had asked Villa to take his troops to attack Saltillo, a town which was still loyal to the president. Villa did so with his usual flair, winning the territory outright. In the meantime, Carranza had entered Mexico City in triumph.

Villa was outraged and immediately diverted his forces onto Zacatecas, the source of much of Mexico's silver wealth. It was a daring target, with easily defensible terrain to cross, but Villa did it. Carranza might have secured the capital city, but Villa had Mexico's economy.

It once again felt cut and dried. Villa would become president and he would ensure that all of the revolution's reforms would be applied. But there was one more sting in the tale. President Woodrow Wilson gave the order that the USA was siding with Carranza. The wily revolutionary politician had already done a deal with Standard Oil, the largest US oil company represented in Mexico. He would protect their interests first.


President Carranza (bearded with a stick) and his government
Villa continued to hold Zacatecas, but he ordered a half of his northern army to attack Carranza. They should have won. Villa's strategies were there and they had the strength and experience. But they were also fighting with ammunition, which had just arrived from Texas. The bullets were duds. 14,000 of Villa's men died on the field and the US president used that as justification for the fact that Carranza was the stronger candidate. From now on, no American arms would be supplied to Villa and no more financing was to come from north of the border.

Pancho Villa felt betrayed. He declared war upon the USA.

Pancho Villa: The Mexican Revolution

It is 1910 and the call goes out. Francisco I. Madero was rising an army and leading it against Mexico's long-term ruler, Porfirio Díaz. Madero was himself a wealthy landowner, one of the very class which benefitted so well under the president, but he was a idealist too. He could see that Mexico couldn't go on like this and his rhetoric espoused change.

He tried to run against the president, legally, in an election, but was jailed. Madero's supporters spoke out. Díaz was a dictator. The people were suffering in poverty. If he wouldn't leave office then there was only one course of action. Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!


The Revolutionaries by David Alfaro Siqueiros
This wasn't the first uprising in Mexico. Before Díaz had become president, the jostling for power had been incessant. But it was the first serious challenge to him in a generation; and the ordinary people had not risen up in such numbers since the War of Independence. After thirty years of dispossession and fear of the police, they had had enough.

Up in the mountains of Chihuahua, another man, adept at reading the way the wind blew, watched the stirrings of revolution with interest. Francisco Villa had progressed through the ranks of Durango banditry and crossed the border into Chihuahua.

At 32 years old, he had become something of a folk hero. Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, in the best traditions of Robin Hood; he was viewed widely as less of a bandit and more a force for justice and the fair redistribution of wealth. While the poor put in all of the hard work, the landowners took all of the benefits. Francisco Villa's gang were simply redressing the odds.

From Durango to Chihuahua, he was known fondly by a pet name for Francisco: Pancho. He couldn't starve. The poor fed him. If he rode through, then the pursuing police would find that no-one had seen a thing. He wasn't a blood-thirsty criminal, he was their Pancho. They loved him and they trusted him.

Thus, in these states, the Revolution wasn't particularly real, until the moment when Pancho Villa came down from the mountains and declared his intention to raise his own army in support of Madero. Then, and only then, did people in the haciendas put down their tools en masse. The División del Norte (Northern Division) of the Revolutionary Army was formed.


It should be noted that Villa wasn't just influential in Northern Mexico. Over the border, in the USA, he was also largely viewed as one of the good guys. When he raised his own revolutionary army, many Americans took up their arms and raced to join him. There were so many, in fact, that Villa created a whole American squadron under the command of Capt. Tracey Richardson.

The rest of his vast army was largely made up of poverty-striken Mexican labourers. They were armed by sympathetic citizens of the USA or else they created their own weapons. Homemade cannons, guns and bayonets flooded into the battlefield. It wasn't just the men out there. Women and children also took up arms in their own defense. The surgency, under Villa, swept the board. Madero's army accepted them into their ranks gladly, though, in many ways, they had no choice in the matter!


Click images for a larger view.


Fighting broke out throughout Mexico, though Villa's activities were restricted to the north. This fell quickly. Mexcali and Chihuahua City were soon in rebel hands. Then Pancho Villa's troops joined with Pascual Orozco's army to take Ciudad Juárez. This was significant. It meant that a city, bordering the USA, was now out of Díaz's control. Weaponry, from Mexico's northern neighbour, could flood unchecked into the country and provide the rebel army with even greater fire-power.

Moreover, Madero had escaped from prison and he was hiding in Texas. The taking of Ciudad Juárez, which borders the Texan city of El Paso, allowed Madero to just step back into Mexico and appeal directly to the Mexico people and their president.

Díaz was worried. Any fighting, in places like Ciudad Juárez, drew the risk of stray artillery injuring or killing Americans in El Paso. That might be all the excuse that the government of the USA needed to declare open war. The territorial desires of the USA had a strong precedent. During the past few decades, they had already taken northern California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. It wasn't a huge stretch of the imagination to consider the loss of Baja California, Sonara, Chihuahua and Coahuila too.

Díaz did not want to be remembered as the president who had further lost parts of Mexico. He agreed to meet with Madero and sign a peace treaty. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez was signed on May 21, 1911. Under the terms of it, Díaz was to step down and install Francisco León de la Barra as an interim president, until proper elections could be held. Díaz did just that, then fled to France. He was never to return to Mexico again.


Revolutionary leaders, including Pancho Villa, after the signing of the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez
However, commentators at the time noted that, in the Treaty, Madero had not pressed for any of the reforms that had fuelled the ideology of this revolution. Where were the terms of 'free suffrage and no re-election'? Where were the land laws, which protected against just 5% of Mexicans lording it over the other 95%? In fact, the whole government was left intact, with just a new figurehead.

Some just assumed that Madero would change things once he was in power. They shook their heads over the fact that he didn't just assume control now, but that was all. It became academic shortly afterwards, when an election was held and Madero won a landslide victory. The revolution had been a success. Díaz was out and the self-proclaimed champion of the poor was in. Madero was president and the war was over. Hurrah!




Pancho Villa had taken Ciudad Juárez with Pascual Orozco, but he didn't like the man. Something about him just rubbed Villa up the wrong way. With the onset of peace and the installation of Madero as president, Villa resigned his command as general. This doesn't mean that he lost his army. The people were there for him, not some distant politician. They might have largely returned to their homes, but Villa was still their general. He only had to give the call and they would rise again.

Fortunately, despite some unsettling signs, that didn't appear imminently necessary. Pancho Villa declared his intention to lead a quiet life. He would retire to the mountains, perhaps buy a hacienda of his own. In the meantime, he would make an honest woman of his girlfriend, Maria Luz Corral. They married, in Chihuahua, on May 29, 1911.


Pancho Villa and Maria Luz Corral.
They thought it was all over, but the Mexican Revolution had only just begun.