Today’s question is about the saguaro, so those of who you have lived in Arizona for more than a few years are free to talk quietly among yourselves or put your heads down on your desks and rest a bit.

The rest of you, the newcomers, should pay careful attention because, like indicting a governor or driving badly, few things are more purely Arizonan than the saguaro, the bloom of which, after all, is our official state flower.

Are cactus candy and cactus jelly really made out of cactus?

There was a time when we would have brought several samples of cactus candy and jelly back for testing in the Valley 101 Research Laboratory. But with the recent shrinking of the paper, we had to pack up lab equipment and put it in storage. It was either that or the bowling trophies.

So, in the absence of a detailed scientific analysis, we put all our trust in Amelio Cassiato, manager of the Cactus Candy Co. in central Phoenix, which, by the way, has a really cool cactus sign out in front.