This is a picture of the inside of a Carnegiea gigantea (Engelm.) Britton & Rose commonly known as a saguaro cactus. Here is the classification from the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service's Plants Database:
The saguaro has a flexible structure that allows it to expand and contract depending on the amount of water available for storage. The central stiff ribs are accordion-like and give strength to the plant allowing it expand to store thousands of pounds of water for use when there is little or no rainfall. Large saguaro cactus plants can weigh more than six tons, made up almost entirely of water. The plants grow very slowly. We planted a very small saguaro when it was only about 3 or 4 inches high. Over the years we have kept the plant growing, even moving it with us when we moved. After about twenty years, the saguaro is now only about four feet high. See Saguaro National Park.
From the outside, the layers you can see in the picture are the epidermis (the green exterior), the cortex or pulp, the ribs, and the pith inside the ribs.
There is a legend in Arizona about a man who supposedly shot a saguaro with a shotgun. The shot cut the cactus which fell on him and killed him. OK, so checking with Snopes.com, it turns out that the story is true. It happened in 1982. But that analysis doesn't agree with the story I know from my teenage years. Guess what, more than one person may have died shooting a saguaro.
| Kingdom | Plantae – Plants |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta – Vascular plants |
| Superdivision | Spermatophyta – Seed plants |
| Division | Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants |
| Class | Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
| Subclass | Caryophyllidae |
| Order | Caryophyllales |
| Family | Cactaceae – Cactus family |
| Genus | Carnegiea Britton & Rose – saguaro |
| Species | Carnegiea gigantea (Engelm.) Britton & Rose – saguaro |
The saguaro has a flexible structure that allows it to expand and contract depending on the amount of water available for storage. The central stiff ribs are accordion-like and give strength to the plant allowing it expand to store thousands of pounds of water for use when there is little or no rainfall. Large saguaro cactus plants can weigh more than six tons, made up almost entirely of water. The plants grow very slowly. We planted a very small saguaro when it was only about 3 or 4 inches high. Over the years we have kept the plant growing, even moving it with us when we moved. After about twenty years, the saguaro is now only about four feet high. See Saguaro National Park.
From the outside, the layers you can see in the picture are the epidermis (the green exterior), the cortex or pulp, the ribs, and the pith inside the ribs.
There is a legend in Arizona about a man who supposedly shot a saguaro with a shotgun. The shot cut the cactus which fell on him and killed him. OK, so checking with Snopes.com, it turns out that the story is true. It happened in 1982. But that analysis doesn't agree with the story I know from my teenage years. Guess what, more than one person may have died shooting a saguaro.
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