Saguaro Cactus

Saguaro Cactus – Travel Story from Polly

     As a southwestern visitor for a couple of weeks every year, I had always wondered about the Saguaro cactus that signals a strange welcome into the vast Sonoran Desert.

      Like stoic sentinels guarding that zone, the giant Saguaro marches up mountains, harbors highway roadsides, appears in the urban landscape, and even lives hazardously along golf courses.

     There are no two alike inhabiting only the Sonoran Desert, an area that includes parts of Arizona, California, and Mexico.

     Many are just green spiny pleated trunks rising out of the shadows of a paloverde tree or a bursage bush. Yet others, who have the good genes of geriatric survival, have arms that reach up to the sky, and may be thirty feet tall.  There’s no blooming until they are about 50 years old, and the mature giant finally gets an appendage around its 75^th birthday. But then, the strange and unusual tree may tower in the desert until it is 200 years old, and sport multiple branches.

     It is not permissible to take the Saguaro from the desert.  Only certain people may obtain a permit to get the giant cactus. If caught stealing one, a hefty fine is imposed.

     Fascinated by this multigenerational plant, I ventured out to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona where the silhouetted Saguaro grows prolifically.

    With a basket in hand full of Saguaro “artifacts,” Nancy White, the Assistant Director of Education at the Desert Botanical Garden, walked and talked about the Saguaro which fits into the ecological landscape of the characteristic desert.  It gets less than 10 inches of rain per year, has a high evaporation rate, and can survive extreme temperature fluctuations. 

     Nature has finely engineered the Saguaro, which can weigh several tons, for the Sonoran Desert. 

     “Think of a Hummer vehicle loaded with the family and the dog,” explained White.

     The columnar structure of the pleated accordion-like surface allows the Saguaro to expand or contract depending on the amount of water it is storing at any time.  The Saguaro holds so much water, that it can go for many months without new water from a rain.

     The Saguaro is able to withstand storms and winds that blow across the desert by a system of lateral roots that run just below the surface of the ground for about the same distance as the height of the saguaro.  As soon as it rains, these roots, and other hair like roots suck up as much moisture as they can. Often, these roots can intertwine around rocks and give the saguaro a phenomenal structural strength.

     As we stood under a three sided wooden structure, White pointed out the lateral poles. The center structure of the saguaro is supported by an interior skeletal system, a series of wooden rods that form a circle.  These round wooden sticks give the Saguaro great structural strength. They have been used by native people as one of their strongest building materials.  The Saguaro ribs are the side poles in this wooden structure.       

         

     In late May, the Saguaro sprouts creamy white blossoms with yellow centers from the top of the plant, and clustered near the ends of the branches. The blossoms open during cooler desert nights and close again by next midday.  Not all of the flowers in a single Saguaro bloom at the same time.  Instead over a period of a month or more, only a few open each night, secreting nectar into their tubes, and awaiting pollination.  These flowers close about noon the following day, never to open again.  If fertilization has occurred, fruit will begin to form immediately.

     Bats and some moths feed on the nectar, thus pollinating the plant to produce a pink fruit about the size of a kiwi that has bright scarlet pulp with tiny black seeds. The fruit ripens just before the fall rainy season.  It is said to be one of the tastiest foods of the desert.  However, it is hard to pick the fruit before the birds and other insects get them.

    The native people harvest the fruit with a long tool made from the dead skeletal wood of the Saguaro.  They make preserves and syrups from the delicacy. 

     Fruit that is left on the tree drop their seeds. They germinate and start growing under a nurse plant.  In about ten years, the new saguaro will be about the size of your thumb.  Eventually, the nurse plant may die as the Saguaro takes the water from it.  To survive in most cases the saguaro seed needs the shade and protection of a nurse plant, such as a paloverde or bursage.

     The typical mature saguaro is a happy hotel for the birds that inhabit the Sonoran Desert.  The Gila Woodpecker drills holes in the saguaros.  That’s just fine with the Saguaro as it forms a “scab” that internally becomes a compartment, a nesting house for the bird.

     The nests maintain a comfortable temperature even during the warmest summer days due to the protection from the sun and the natural air conditioning provided by the saguaro.   Many kinds of birds have been observed living in the nests of the Saguaro including the woodpecker, cactus wren, elf owl, screech owl, sparrow hawk, and white winged doves.

     From her basket, White pulled out an odd looking dried up boot from a dead Saguaro.  Sometime ago, it was the inside home to many birds.  She also had the sturdy cross section of the Saguaro core, and dried pieces of the fruit.  Through her “show and tell” and her informative tour, my many wonders of the cactus giant were answered. 

     There’s much more to the amazing world of the Saguaro Cactus.    

      In fact, you might think that the new cell towers sprouting up in Phoenician neighborhoods, sporting an organic look, are real Saguaro cactus!