Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Saguaro-rama!!

Among all the mysteries of this island, there is one constant—

CACTI

All around the pirate compound they can be found:
Tall cacti, small cacti,

cacti posing with animals that look like it,

cacti that look like cushions,


cacti that ARE cushions,



and chairs,



and sofas...

(Okay, that last one isn't real)

But everywhere you look, there are cacti.

as far as the eye can see,

there are millions, and billions, 

and trillions of cacti...

(also some very pretty mountains)

and as close as you're willing to look

Close...

...closer...

...Ouch!

Most of these prickly plants are Saguaro cacti, considered by the local Tohono O'odham to be a sort of People of the Desert, or at least respected members of their tribe. They believed the saguaros walked around at night.

The legend says that the first saguaro began life as a human baby who was abandoned by its mother, who never nursed her child. The infant, after following her in vain, finally sank into the earth and came up on a mountain slope as a giant cactus. >sob<

(The first Saguaro probably didn't look like this.)

Saguaros are thought to live for 200 or more years!!! 

They can grow to over 40 ft high 

They don't even grow their first arm until they are older than a whole human life! 

Wow.

You go, Saguaro.

Please note: if you were a Saguaro, you would be less than 1" tall right now.

Here are two I saw with arms that made me smile:

The droopy arm was caused by the weather getting too cold for the cactus at some point. 

By the way, check out that baby in the foreground. Probably a mere 50 years old.

Saguaros don't bloom until they are almost 70 years old.

That's almost as old as your grandparents.

When they do bloom, the flowers last only

one day and night, giving both day and nighttime creatures a chance to pollinate them.

 

Saguaros also give fruit.

How many animals do you think eat the fruit? (Answer in a link below.)

Saguaros support lots of desert life—

run your mouse over things on these pages to learn more about 

the plants and animals that rely on them:

Saguaros in the Daytime

Saguaros in the Nighttime

But Mommy, what happens when Saguaros die?

Are they called ghost cacti? No...

...but what's left is called a cactus skeleton. Saguaro skeletons look like this:

 Get a load of its face closer up!

SPOOOOOOOKY!!!

(Actually that "face" is called a "boot"—it's the spot that used to house an animal.)

Sometimes....

an animal that doesn't live in a cactus will find itself there anyway, 

because it is being chased by something bigger:

Holy prickly butt, Cat Woman!!! Glad they got down safely.

So, to sum up...

A cactus is not an animal, 

but animals use it.

A cactus is not a food

but you can eat some parts of it.

A cactus is not a huggable friend, 

 but you can love it from a distance.

A desert cactus should not be carried away from its desert home

except in your pictures....

...and the plural of cactus is cacti,

but you get to choose whether you want to focus on the singular or plural.

I love you, my little KCacti!