Time of the Saguaro

A saguaro blooms near my home.

May is a hot month in the Sonoran Desert.  Rain is rare and temperatures are rapidly rising to the 90's, even reaching the 100 degree F mark, as it did yesterday, will today and may tomorrow down in Tucson.  At 3,400 feet, we won't see 100; however, I find it difficult to feel the difference between 100 and 96 degrees.  Hot is hot, though I do find Arizona's heat more tolerable than Virginia's muggy steam.

While May heralds summer, it also signals a beautiful late-spring marvel:  the bloom of the majestic saguaro (pronounced sah-WAH-row).  Saguaro are tall, columnar cactus with up stretched arms often seen in western films and  advertising materials depicting the Old West.  The fact is you won't find saguaros growing wild in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada or Colorado.  They aren't even in Arizona's Monument Valley.  They are native only to the Sonoran Desert, and grow in southern Arizona, northwestern Mexico, and in a couple counties within southern California. 

This icon of the southwest, Carnegiea gigantea, was named in honor of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who had both an avid and philanthropic interest in science.  These largest of North America's cactus often reach 50 to 60 feet, and when full of water can weigh up to eight tons.  Their surface is pleated, and expands like an accordion when the plant fills up with water.  They can live between 150-200 years, and are extremely slow growers.  A 1 1/2 inch tall saguaro might be 10 years old!  They are usually about 50 years old before growing their first "arm," and may have as many as 60 of these appendages.

Saguaro National Park, with units to the west and east of Tucson, protects large stands of these fascinating plants.  These stands are called cactus forests.  It is illegal to harm a saguaro in any way; in fact, whenever homes and highways are built in areas where saguaros are found, permits are needed to relocate or remove them.  Arizona even has "cactus police" who track down "cactus rustlers."

Saguaros are "animal condos."  Insects, birds, and rodents make their home in these sentinels.  Gilded flickers and Gila woodpeckers excavate deep holes into the stem and use them for nests.  Elf owls, wrens, and swallows often use abandoned holes.  Pack rats and ground squirrels live underneath the cactus' base. 

The flowers are quite beautiful and fragrant with a creamy, white waxy surface.  They open at night, at which time they are pollinated by nectar-feeding bats.  The flowers often remain open until late morning when doves and bees assume pollination duty.

Close up of pleats.

The saguaro is particularly important to Native Americans.  The Tohono O'odham tribe harvests the dark red fruit to make a kind of wine used in a summer rain-making ceremony.  They also make syrup and jelly from the fruit and grind the seeds into a type of flour for cakes.  The woody ribs of the cactus are often used in building materials, and in making the fruit harvesting tool.  The long spines are used as sewing needles.    Some Native Americans believe the saguaro are the souls of their ancestors.  I can understand such a belief; to me saguaros do look like people with outstretched or upward reaching arms, and it is not unusual to find two saguaros that appear to be "embracing."

I feel very fortunate to live in the only area of the world where these huge, natural wonders exist.  Whenever I walk among these tree-like cactus, I feel a silent contentment, as if benevolent giants are watching over me.

Close up of saguaro flowers from a cactus in my community.