Saguaro Blooms

The saguaro cactus has become synonymous with the desert Southwest. The standard cartoon saguaro has two arms and a few random spines. There is even a website to teach you how to draw a saguaro cactus complete with the obligatory two arms. Even though they may appear as simple objects when stylized, they are very complex organisms. In addition, their growing range is rather restricted to a relatively small geographic area almost exclusively in southern and central Arizona. John Ford movies to the contrary, there aren't any saguaro cactus in Monument Valley or anywhere above about 3000 feet.

The saguaro blooms in late June or early July and the major pollinators are bats. They are protected in Arizona by laws imposing heavy fines for removing one from the desert. But they are not rare, we have two of them growing in our front yard.