Blooms and Barbs

I was hoping that I would be in Saguaro National Park during the spring blooming season for thee saguaro cactus.  Unfortunately, I was there a bit too early.  Blooming season is generally May into June (darn!).  But, there were interesting things to see among the other blooms and barbs!

Saguaro Texture

There’s something about the texture of the saguaro cactus that fascinates me.  I love the patterns that the rows of barbs make up. The stems of the saguaro generally measure between 18” and 24” thick, filled with water.

Barrel Cactus Bloom

One of the cactus that were blooming were some barrel cactus.  I think this is just getting ready to burst forth with blooms.  Or, it’s just finished, but still looks nice!  I’m never sure!

Saguaro Cactus Points

Ouch!!  I felt like I needed to take a super close up of the saguaro’s barbs, to really get an idea of how painful it would be if I got stuck!  And, heaven forbid, one should fall on me!  Because they are full of water, they can weigh up to 8 tons!

Busy Bumble Bee

I’m not sure what type of cactus bush plant sprouted this daisy like blooms.  But the bees were certainly happy around it!  I didn’t notice bees anywhere else, except around these flowers.  It just seemed funny that I didn’t even get a glimpse of one elsewhere!

Ocotillo Blooms

Well, the ocotillos must have gotten plenty of rain – they were vibrant green and sprouting such bright rosy pink blooms at their very tips!  This is another cactus that I just am attracted to because of its quirkiness – so tall and spindly, and can quickly change from this lovely green to what looks like a dried out stick, in a matter of days with no rain.  And, it will change back to green just as quickly when it does rain again!

Saguaro Thorns

I got pretty close to this saguaro to get this nice view of its barbs.  You can see this guy looks to have about 3 arms.  I’ve read the record for number of arms is 50 on a giant saguaro somewhere in this national park, but I didn’t see it on my travels this time around!

Enjoy!

Saguaro National Park (East)

One day, while Jeff was in a technical class regarding our RV, I decided to take a most definite non-technical drive thru the east side of Saguaro National Park.  The interesting thing about Saguaro National Park is that the city of Tucson cuts it in half.  The east side is along the Rincon Mountains and is at about 8600 feet in elevation.  There are a number of hiking trails, but for today’s photo shoot, I stuck to the road that meandered thru part of the park.

Saguaro Forest

The first thing that folks may notice is how GREEN it is here in the Sonoran Desert!  It is springtime, so perhaps that had something to do with it!  I love the shades of green that can be seen not only on the saguaro cactus, but the shrub bushes and then traveling up the lower portion of the mountains in the distance.

Ocotillo and Prickly Pear

In addition to the saguaro cactus, there are also prickly pear cactus and ocotillo.  For some reason, I’ve always liked prickly pear cactus.  The round leaves are appealing to me, altho I don’t ever get too close to the thorns sticking out from them!!  The ocotillo is such a cool plant, too.  When it has had enough water, it’s a lovely green (altho there are thorns on those long stems), but when the weather turns dry, it dries to a dead looking spindly thing.  However, just a bit of rain and it will green up again in a matter of a day or so!

Big Guy

Of course, the star of the show is the saguaro cactus.  This guy was really tall.  An interesting thing about them is that they will first sprout an arm between 75 – 100 years old, altho some never will sprout an arm.  They can grow up to 40 feet tall!!  The bloom from the saguaro cactus is the state flower of Arizona.

Cacti Landscape

There’s something about a desert landscape that is quite beautiful and striking, in a non-traditional way.  It’s much more stark and unforgiving, in a way.  Almost more real, I feel.  One thing – I definitely don’t feel like laying down in it and gazing at the clouds!

Prickly Pear and Saguaro Cactus

And, here I’m looking at my 2 favorite cacti – the round, almost plump looking prickly pear and the tree-limbed saguaro.  I’m not certain why I like these 2 so much, but I do.  I guess they have an amount of character that I like!

Saguaro on the Rise

One interesting thing about the saguaro cactus is that it only grows naturally in the Sonoran Desert, which is found in the southwest portion of North America.  This translates into this area of Arizona in the US.  I especially like to look at them as they are silhouetted against the sky.

Along the Road

The saguaro cactus sort of lined this part of the road that I traveled.  Since this is the only place in the US where you can see them growing (naturally), it’s rather a treat to see them growing somewhat haphazardly in nature.

Saguaro Shadow

I never knew this – the word saguaro comes from the Latin, Carnegiea gigantean, which means gigantic candle.  It certainly looks like it in this image!

Enjoy!