Saguaro
Carnegiea gigantea
Cactus family (Cactaceae)
An old film star
Everyone will recognise the saguaro from films and comic book stories set in the Wild West. However this archetypal cactus originates from a relatively small area in Arizona and northern Mexico. The narrow, straight cactus can grow up to 20 m and reach an age of about 150 years. Only after 70 years, the plant acquires its characteristic branches. The cactus flowers are large and white and attract insects, bats and birds.
Although this prickly giant grows in very dry places, the plant has only short roots. Morning dew drips off the thorny ribbed stem at the base and is immediately taken up by the roots. The cactus then stores the water directly in its thick, weathered stem where the two woodpeckers, the gilded flicker and the northern flicker, make their home.
Themes
Crown jewel of Royal Burgers' Zoo.
A true giant in the cactus family, this has become a part of film history as the iconic ‘Western cactus’ featured in many cowboy films.
Saguaros provide nesting habitats for birds and small mammals. When Gila woodpeckers (Melanerpes uropygialis) and gilded flickers (Colaptes chrysoides) dig their nests into the cactus flesh it produces a hard callus lining to the cavity that seals it off from the surrounding living tissue.
The delicious fruits have a juicy, red flesh with lots of tiny, black, nutty-tasting seeds. They were a staple food of the Tohono O’odham and Pima indians and were either eaten fresh or turned into juice, syrup, jam, wine (for the rain-making ceremony) or vinegar. The seeds are used as chicken food or ground into a flour for cooking.
The internal ‘woody ribs’, which form an inter-connected ring-like skeleton, of dead stems once provided building materials (especially roof beams) and firewood, and were also used as splints for broken bones.
The Tohono O’odham people organised their traditional calendar around the annual fruiting cycle of the saguaro cactus and considered the species to be so important that plants were regarded as fellow humans who should not be hurt.
Details
Description: | Succulent, cactus; columnar in shape with long, thin pillar-like stem and branches, up to 16 m high. |
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Distributions: | Sonoran desert (arizona, california, northern mexico and baja california). |
Habitat: | Desert |
Year cycle: | Perennial (trees and shrubs included) |
Hardiness: | 34 - 41 f (tender - cool or frost-free glasshouse) |
Flowering period: | April - juni |
Flower color: | White |
Fruiting period: | Mei - juli |
Fruit color: | Red |
At its best: | April - juni |