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EXTRA-page.
SAGUARO CACTUS
a giant with needles
The largest of his kind.
Fully grown, a saguaro may reach a height of 40 feet, live 200 years and
have multiple arms. The average saguaro is about 30 feet tall and has
5 arms. Saguaro's grow only in the Sonoran Desert regions of Arizona,
Sonora, Mexico, and two small areas in California. It is the largest
cactus native to the United States. The saguaro flower is Arizona's
state flower.
Growing up.
Buds appear on the tips of the saguaro in mid-April and May. In three to
four weeks the buds blossom into flowers.
Birds, bees and nocturnal visitors such as bats all help germinate
the saguaro's flowers. These bloom only once, opening at night and
closing the following afternoon. Flowers that are successfully fertilized
produce fruits in June and July. Each fruit contains more than 2,000 seeds,
each one a potential saguaro.
Seeds dispersed by animals that feed on saguaro fruit fall to the ground,
and a small number of these germinate. Saguaros often start life in the
shelter of a "nurse" plant, such as a paloverde tree. In this shaded,
protected habitat, the saguaro begins to grow slowly. Depending on
conditions, it may take 20 to 50 years for a saguaro to reach a foot
in height.
Saguaros sprout their first arm when they are about 8 to 9 feet tall.
Depending on many environmental factors such as rainfall, it may have taken
50 to 100 years to reach this height. Saguaros flower when they are
about 25, but the flowers may not produce fruit with viable seedlings
until much later.
Home for birds. Gila woodpeckers, guilded flickers and elf owls
all make their homes in small burrows chiseled into the trunk of
the saguaro. The cactus forms a hard callus around the burrow,
which does not harm the saguaro.
Structure. Woody ribs provide a skeleton to support the enormous height
and weight of the cactus. The ribs run vertically through the plant,
thinning as they get higher. Saguaros can weigh up to 6 tons.
Pleats allow the cactus to expand and hold more moisture. A saguaro can store
about 1,500 gallons of water in its porous tissue. Their ability to
store large quantities of water allow them to survive long dry spells.
Saguaro roots spread out in all directions, forming a pad to support
and nourish the cactus. The pad usually is as wide as the plant is tall.
The shallow roots allow the cactus to quickly absorb rainfall before
it evaporates.
The world's largest Saguaro. The current world's largest Saguaro (as of
2003) is called the 'Grand One', named by the two men who found it in December
2002 about a mile away from Horseshoe Lake and the Verde River just northeast
of Phoenix, AZ, in a hilly area.
This towering sentinel of the Sonoran Desert measures 46 ft high and 7 ft 10
inches around its base. It is estimated to be 180-200 years old and shows more
than a dozen arms.
Pictures (above) by myself.
Infos taken from
The Arizona Republic (March 24, 2002).
Note: You can find great pictures of saguaros in the Sand Tank Mountains in the
Arizona Highways
(April 2002) - see cover on the right.
I highly recommend a subscribtion of this magazine for only US-$21 (12 issues/year).
Canadian subscribers ad US-$10, elsewhere outside the USA add US-$13.
LINKS for more infos about the Saguaro:
Saguaro National Park
Friends of Saguaro National Park
ASU - Arizona State University - Info about Saguaro
Desert USA - Info about Saguaro
National Park Service - Info about Saguaro National Park
San Francisco State University, Geography - Biogeography of Cereus Giganteus
(student paper)
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