Texas regulations against cactus poaching and enforcement are lax compared with oversight in Arizona, which requires legally harvested wild cacti to be tagged, according to state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

"What drives the theft of cacti is xeriscaping," Shapleigh said. "All through the West, water is scarce and cities are passing conservation ordinances. Suddenly there's a market for cacti from Texas in California or Phoenix."

At least nine endangered or threatened species of cactus are found in Texas, according to the state Parks and Wildlife Department.

"I've been on properties where you see mostly holes where plants were dug up," said Terry Martin, a professor of botany at Sul Ross State University who is also the head of the Cactus Conservation Institute. "It's a manpower problem. There's not enough people and too many square miles that are vulnerable to this activity."

Cacti cannot be removed from public land and can be removed from private land only with the landowner's permission, according to Jackie Poole, a department botanist.

At least twice, Shapleigh has authored legislation that would require individuals who harvest or sell plants to provide proof that the plants come from their own land or that they have written permission from the property owner where the harvesting took place.

In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the legislation, saying the rule would establish new fees and regulations for cactus harvesters.

"As a result, the practice of xeriscaping would face artificial barriers in the marketplace at a time when government should be encouraging efforts to conserve water," he said in a veto statement.

Shapleigh said big retailers, who didn't want to see prices go up, were behind the veto.

In 2007, a similar piece of Shapleigh cactus legislation died in a House committee.

State Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, said he didn't give Shapleigh's bill a hearing in his Agriculture and Livestock Committee because "it seemed like everything he was worried about we already had rules to address."

Miller said ranchers and farmers should be able to sell what they want off their land and trespassing rules already prevent rustlers from coming on their land.

"Ranchers can gather up all the cacti and burn them, as far as I'm concerned," Miller said. "They can be a pest."