French Deserts, Naked Buds, Cacti, and Guillotines
[Literature cited or referenced appear at the end of the article.]
You will not find le Desert de Retz in the guidebooks for the American Southwest, for the very good reason that it occurs 12 miles west of Paris, France. Le Desert de Retz was created in 1774 by Francois Henri Racine de Monville, in Saint Jacques de Retz, France, where Monville had his rather fabulous estate. Monsieur Monville was an aristocrat, was said to be strikingly handsome, had a terrific singing voice, composed music, played the flute, and was a delight on the dance floor, where he was occasionally accompanied by Marie Antoinette. Monsieur Monville was not, however, tall. Being 5-ft 8-inches tall was no detriment, and Monville actually played it to his advantage to elude his enemies. But I am getting ahead of the story.
In 2006, I purchased a cactus despite the detraction that it had no label. The curved golden spines were sufficiently attractive to overcome the fact that the species was unknown to me. I deduced from its chinned areoles that the cactus belonged to the genus, Gymnocalycium, which means "naked bud". As the years went by the cactus grew to rather large size, and at long last it flowered, an event that allowed me to identify the cactus with certainty. And what do you know, it was Gymnocalycium monvillei, a name given in honor of the frenchman Francois Henri Racine de Monville. It was another Frenchmen, Charles Antoine Lemaire who named the cactus. No cactus is native to France, however, and Lemaire conjectured that Gymnocalycium monvillei was native to Paraguay. We know today that Monville's cactus is native to Argentina's Provences of Cordoba and San Luis. There it is able to endure cold as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the upheaval of the Revolution swept through France in 1789, Monsieur Monville, an aristocrat, was in dire peril. When the revolutionaries repeatedly scoured his estate to drag Monville to execution, they'd only find his drably dressed gardener, all 5-foot 8-inches of him, and so the great man eluded them. Eventually the revolutionaries did apprehend Monville, but by that time the fury of the revolution had been spent. Instead of being sent to the Guillotine, Monville was sent to prison. By and by, he was freed. When Monville died in 1797, he left a dandy of a cactus to remember him by, Gymnocalycium monvillei. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/17978442
Literature and References:
Charles Antoine Lemaire, 1838, Cactarum Aliquuot Novarum . . . Horto Monvilliana, page 14
Ronald W. Kenyon, DesertdeRetz.com
Ronald W. Kenyon, 2013, Monville - Forgotten Luminary of the French Enlightenment, page 204
