Nothing like a cactus to keep you alert

From the biosphere, we traveled toward part of the Saguaro National Park, home of the giant cactus … beautiful in its own way.  In getting there, we passed some military facility that is home to what appears to be hundreds of mothballed planes (and who knows what else).  They’re all lined up in near-perfect order, some with all their little pointy white noses facing in one direction.  Jaz and I passed by this and photographed it a couple of times because they all looked so cool.  But I didn’t get any photo that I thought was the “money shot.”  Oh well.


Head's ...

or tail's ...

On to the cactus … the saguaro cactus is regal, stately, majestic … all that you’d never quite expect to see in a cactus.  The saguaro exists today because there were some local residents who had the foresight to plan for the future as in the 1920s there was a rush to develop and use land for grazing.  The mature cacti were chopped to make way for new roads and livestock trampled seedlings.  Afraid that the saguaro would be lost forever, Saguaro National Park was created, protecting the giants for generations. 

There were thousands of saguaro cacti in previous times.

The Saguaro National Park consists of two areas, with about a 30-mile separation that houses Tucson.  The entire park covers about 91,000 acres of the Sonoran Desert, and includes not only the saguaro giants but other cacti, desert trees, shrubs and animals.  This area is one of the hottest and driest regions on the continent with summer midday temperatures commonly climbing above 100 degrees F., and gets less than 12 inches of rain in a typical year.  Between the rainy seasons months may pass without a drop of rain.

There are all kinds of cactus here, and some flowers were even blooming, making for a beautiful scene.

And we had perfect weather, too ... blue sky and warm temperatures, but not too warm.

These are particularly nasty cactus ... and I didn't venture too near except with a longer lens.

 Saguaros, as well as other desert plants and animals, are specially adapted for survival.  But what’s most intriguing about them is that they are one of the most noticed symbol of the Southwest, and appear to have personalities.  They have odd, almost human shapes, and that can inspire a lot of fanciful thoughts. 

The closest one here looks like it has little short bunny ears on top.

This one has ample arms to reach out to touch someone.

The cactus, as we learned, doesn’t begin to sprout “arms” until it’s about 75 years old, and saguaros live on average, 200 years, often dying from old age.  A mature saguaro that lives 150 years or more may tower 50 feet tall and weigh 16,000 pounds or more.  They provide a fig-like fruit, edible seeds and a woody-type rib that was used by the O'odham to build fences and shelters.

This one looks like it has an arm on either side and a big, bulbous nose sticking out.  It's thought that extreme temperatures, including 20 hours at less than freezing, will kill a saguaro.  They also die at the hands of animals who eat the seeds and seedlings, lightning, wind and droughts.

The little holes in the cactus are often made by Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers who drill nest holes in the trunks and larger branches.  They make new holes each spring, often making and rejecting several before settling in one to raise a family.  Other birds using the holes include Lucy's warblers, cactus wrens and American kestrels.

The saguaro cactus is surely a money shot no matter where you shoot, at what you shoot, or how many times you shoot.  The desert area where they live truly is beautiful in its own way, with some cactus-types flowering and others just waiting to put a sticker in you.  I was wearing my riding boots while I was out wandering around taking photos, but still ended up with a few stickers … glad they were in my boots and not my hands, legs, or other precious parts.

The prickers look and feel like porcupine quills.

Until recent years deaths outnumbered the new growth.  Saguaros produce millions of seeds but the odds are against survival.  Few grow to adulthood unless they are cared for by nurse trees, ones under which the saguaro grows.  They grow very slowly, and by year's end may only be a quarter-inch tall.  After 15 years they may only be 12 inches tall and at 50 years, about seven feet tall.  But if one does survive, the mighty saguaro dwarfs everything else in the desert as these are the largest cacti in the United States.