Religious Catus

The Saguaro Cactus

Growth varies from 4 to 8 inches a year, depending on weather. A 10-year-old plant may be only a few inches tall.

Mature saguaros can grow up to 45 feet in ideal conditions. The saguaro is the tallest cactus in the United States. It takes a saguaro about 150 years to reach its full height. 

Saguaros brighten the desert with an outstanding flower display from mid-May though June.

A mature saguaro can be more than 6 tons.

The first arms sprout when the cactus is 40-50 years old.

Some have arms, some don’t. Some have many arms, twisting and pointing as if trying to show directions. Scientists don’t really know why saguaros vary so much in their appendage-setting habits.

There are 2,000 seeds in the fruit and saguaros can produce millions of seeds in its lifetime, but only a few will germinate, and only a few of those will survive the first year. Only one may survive to adulthood. The plant also has to be lucky to avoid being dug up or eaten by an insect, bird or rodent.

Saguaros can produce as many as 40 million seeds in a lifetime. Its ribs, called pleats, expand and contract according to the availability of water.

Some saguaros can produce 200 bulbs of fruit a year.
The fruit is usually sweet, almost sugary, depending on ripeness. The numerous small seeds make the pulp crunchy.

Saguaros often have holes in them.Newcomers sometimes think that the cactus has been vandalized with gunshots. Actually, birds are responsible. Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers carve out nesting sites in saguaros. Then birds such as owls, starlings and sparrows use the abandoned woodpecker nests the following year. Wildlife won’t harm it if it is healthy and mature.

Some birds, such as cactus wrens and hawks, prefer to make nests outside the saguaro in the juncture of its arms. And the hawks will keep coming back to this nest until that particular nesting pair stops nesting.

101 degrees, a mile walk, and a quart of water today in Buckeye Arizona. Will be in New Mexico in the morning