Consolea macracantha

Range and environment

The species is native to Cuba. The 2023 flora account gives sites in Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Cienfuegos and Pinar del Río, among others. This provides more detail than the abbreviated range description in a taxonomic database. Plants occur in coastal and near-coastal dry scrub, small-leaved evergreen forests and partly deciduous forests. [Barrios et al. 2023] [2-WWW]

The Cuban review gave elevations from sea level to 290 m above sea level. These are conditions at local sites rather than a recommendation for cultivation in constantly dry substrate. The species forms communities with other woody plants and shrubs, so light availability changes with location and crown height. [Barrios et al. 2023]

Diagnostic features

In the 2001 key, C. macracantha comprised trees 3–15 m tall, with long trunk spines reaching 15–20 cm in the description. Segment surfaces are smooth, and the pericarpel lacks spines. Free staminal filaments were distinguished from partly joined ones in plants identified as C. picardae. The set of floral traits complements habit-based identification. [Areces-Mallea 2001]

Young C. macracantha plants and Cuban C. moniliformis described as subsp. guantanamana may be similar. Later, the difference between the smooth segment surface of the first taxon and the network of depressions in the second becomes important. Identification of a cutting from spines alone should retain information about the mother plant. [Barrios et al. 2023]

Distinctness in studies

In the sample examined from Yabacoa, Cuba, 2n = 66 chromosomes were found. The 2021 molecular analysis supported the distinctness of the C. macracantha lineage despite former treatments combining other Consolea with it. The scope of a name in an old list may therefore be broader than today's species profile. [Negrón-Ortiz 2007] [Majure et al. 2021b]