Frequently Asked Questions About Saguaros
Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published July 15, 2001.)
Here at the Valley 101 Research Center and Windshield Squeegeeing Service, we have amassed a collection of three questions about saguaros, those noble cactuses that symbolize Arizona just as surely as do recall elections.
And we now endeavor to answer these queries with, as always, the help of Patrick Quirk of the Desert Botanical Gardens, who has forgotten more about saguaros then you’ll ever know.
I have lived here almost all my life, but this year was the first time I’ve seen saguaros with red flowers. Usually these are paler blooms. Is there a reason for the red?
Those were not flowers. What you saw was the saguaro fruit that had split open to show its pulpy interior. Saguaro fruit was an important part of the diets of many Native American peoples hereabouts. They even made a kind of wine from it.
For some tribes, the saguaro harvest, followed by the life-giving monsoon rains, marked the beginning of the new year.
Why do saguaros have different numbers of arms?
Why not? Why do trees have different numbers of branches?
However, a healthy and well-watered saguaro will have more arms than a thirsty or ailing saguaro.
When you drive west into California on Interstate 10 the saguaro cactus seem to stop precisely at the border. What’s the cause of this?
As you travel east to west across Arizona, it gets drier, and the saguaros get scarcer. Phoenix’s average annual rainfall is 7.66 inches.
Yuma’s is 3.17.
The monsoon rains that saguaros need to germinate and grow just don’t reach that far west.
And by the time you get to the California line, the saguaros you see tend to be somewhat spindly things confined to washes or other rare wet spots.
One last thing: a tip for the newly arrived. It’s “suh-WAR-o.”
Nothing will cause hot coals of scorn and ridicule to be heaped on your head more quickly than pronouncing it “sa-gar-o.”
Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published July 15, 2001.)
The arms on the saguaro cactus are for balance, as I’m sure you know they do not have a deep root structure. Even the slightest tilt caused from the wind or erosion will also cause a new arm to start growing.
Saguaros mature when they reach 8 feet tall. Below that, they don’t bloom or branch. Branching pattern is pretty random. Droopy branches are from frost damage.
Saguaros can grow fast in high nutrient and in areas with more rainfall. I’ve had some in my yard grow 6 feet in the 10 years I’ve lived here.
Saguaros seldom survive transplanting if they have branches. South side has to stay south when planted, or it will stress and die.
Saguaros are accordion shaped. They compress when dehydrated and expand when the rains come.
Saguaros needles are very flammable while still attached to the trunk almost like a pine tree. Use caution with camp fires. I learned this while burning weed stubble around the cactus and caught one on fire. It went up like a torch and burned blue all the way to the top. It survived bet left scars on the plant.