Happy Earth Day from saguaro land!

 

To mark Earth Day, I thought I'd show you some of the most amazing plants on the planet -- the giant saguaros of the Sonoran Desert where I live. The saguaros are only native to this desert, which includes southern Arizona, adjoining northern Mexico, and a little bit of adjacent California. Those Westerns showing saguaros anywhere else didn't do their research.

To give you an idea of how massive they are, look for the string of adult hikers in the photo above and then compare them to the saguaros! This is in Catalina State Park, just a few miles from my house. 

How tall do they grow? Record height: 78 feet. Average mature height: 18-30 feet, but often reach 50-60 feet.

I stand in awe of them.

What about those arms? They don't grow arms until they're about 12 feet high, or 40-80 years old, although some never grow arms.

What I most love about them is how expressive their arms make them, just like people! Some days I feel as tired as the one above.

Other days I'm as energetic as the Michelin Man in Catalina State Park.

This one wants to hold something.

This one, in Tohono Chul, has issues. You can see all the cavities drilled by birds that have turned it into a cactus hotel.

The street crossing guard is in the Tucson Mountains.

This one doesn't know what it wants!

The one with the big head is a crested saguaro -- only one in 200,000 is a crested and scientists still aren't sure what causes it.

The spines are actually leaves modified to guard and insulate a cactus.

Very few saguaro seeds grow into plants, but the ones that do usually start out being protected by a "nurse tree" like the one above. The babies only grow a fraction of an inch in their first year, so the nurse tree protects them from predators and provides shade and moisture. They grow very slowly -- in general, about three feet in 30 years. A healthy, lucky saguaro can live to about 200 years!

Saguaros bloom with beautiful white flowers in the spring.

In the summer, the crimson fruit appears and the desert animals go wild at the feast! Native Americans still harvest the fruit, knocking it down with long saguaro ribs from dead cactuses.

This one might have been struck by lightning or ravaged by disease, but judging from its height it led a long life, providing food and shelter for many desert dwellers. My hat is off to these magnificent plants!

Have a colorful day