The Colorado Plateau is home to eight species of Pediocacti, tiny spiny succulents able to survive drought and extreme cold in harsh high-elevation environments. Now one species has become a helpful indicator of ecosystem resilience to wildfire.
The Paradine Plains Cactus only grows on and around the Kaibab Monocline, mostly in pinyon-juniper habitat, where high desert sagebrush transitions to ponderosa pine forest.
Classed as a species of special concern, they grow in scattered patches. One of the first plants to flower in spring, they’re important for early pollinators. Part of their lifecycle is spent underground, when the cacti retract their stems into their roots to aid survival during extended dry spells.
After the White Sage fire burned north of the Grand Canyon in summer 2025, ecologists from the Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes at Northern Arizona University were quick to visit high-severity burns where the rare cacti grow, to see whether any of the plants they’d been monitoring had survived.
Among dead trees and completely blackened ground cover, they were amazed to see patches of what looked like little green buttons.
Incredibly, around 80 percent of the cacti had survived, although in the highest severity burns around half had visible fire damage.
Researchers are now carefully monitoring the Paradine Plains Cacti population. With their yellow bell-shaped flowers, they’re the equivalent of the canary-in-the-coal-mine…. important indicators of the whole ecosystem’s ability to endure the increasing frequency of fire in the region.
This episode of Earth Notes is funded in part by Pink Jeep Tours, written by Diane Hope, and produced by KNAU and the Sustainable Communities Program at Northern Arizona University.
