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Information about Saguaro

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Saguaro

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Magnoliophyta
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Caryophyllales
Family:Cactaceae
Subfamily:Cactoideae
Tribe:Pachycereeae
Genus:Carnegiea
Britton & Rose
Species:C. gigantea
Binomial name
Carnegiea gigantea
Britton & Rose
Synonyms
Cereus giganteus Engelm.


The Saguaro, pronounced "sah-wah-roh", (Carnegiea gigantea) is a large, tree-sized cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, United States and northern Mexico.

The common name of the cactus, saguaro, is a Spanish-language adaptation of a word used by a local aboriginal American nation, the Tohono O'odham, for the plant. Local English speakers pronounce it /səˈwɑɹo/.

Saguaros are slow growing, taking up to 75 years to develop a side arm. The arms themselves are grown to store more water for the Saguaro. Some specimens may live for more than 150 years[1]; the champion saguaro grows in Maricopa County, Arizona and is 13.8 m tall and has a girth of 3.1 m. (It was injured as a result of the Cave Creek Complex fire in June 2005.) In addition to being slow growing, they are also slow to propagate. These two factors argue for the placement of the saguaro on the endangered species list. Harming one in any manner (including cactus plugging) is illegal by state law in Arizona, and when houses or highways are built, special permits must be obtained to move or destroy any saguaro affected.

The night blooming flowers appear April-May and the juicy red fruit matures by late June. Saguaro flowers are self incompatible and require a pollenizer to supply viable pollen. A well-pollinated fruit will contain several thousand tiny seeds, and large quantities of pollen are required for pollination. The major pollinators are bats feeding on the nectar from the night-blooming flowers, which often remain open in the morning. The characteristics of the flower are geared toward pollination by the bats: the nocturnal opening of the flowers, maturation of pollen, and the nectar.

Gila Woodpeckers and the Gilded Flicker create holes for nests in saguaros. Flickers excavate larger holes higher on the stem, penetrating the ribs. Their holes sometimes cause enough damage to cause death and other problems. These woodpeckers create new nest holes each season, rather than reuse the old ones, thus leaving convenient nest holes for a variety of other animals, especially birds such as the Elf Owl.

The ribs of the saguaro are used for construction and other purposes by aboriginal Americans of the region. A fine example can be seen in the roofing of the cloisters of the Mission San Xavier del Bac on the Tohono O'odham lands near Tucson, Arizona. The Seri people of northwestern Mexico used the plant, which they call mojépe, for a number of purposes.

The saguaro blossom is the state flower of Arizona.




Saguaro cactus in AZ, Note the man to the right, he is 5'11''.

Full grown saguaros tower over people

Mature five armed in flower

Flowers

Snow covered saguaro in Tucson

A forest of saguaro - Tucson, Arizona. May 2007.

A saguaro forest

The bare wooden ribs of a dead saguaro

Saguaro with nest holes

Looking up a saguaro

Sunset in Saguaro National Park

Cristate saguaro found in the Desert Botanical Garden

Unusually formed saguaro from Sonoran desert near Kino Bay


References

  • Benson, L. (1981). The Cacti of Arizona. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-0509-8
  • Felger, Richard; Mary B. Moser. (1985). People of the desert and sea: ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 

External links



conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in number, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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Magnoliophyta

Classes

Magnoliopsida - Dicots
Liliopsida - Monocots

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms comprise the two extant groups of seed plants.
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Magnoliopsida
Brongniart

Orders

See text.
Dicotyledons, or "dicots", is a name for a group of flowering plants whose seed typically contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons.
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Caryophyllales
Perleb

Families
See text.
Synonyms

Centrospermae

Caryophyllales is an order of flowering plants that includes the cacti, carnations, amaranths, ice plants, and most carnivorous plants.
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Cactus, see Mammillaria, Melocactus, and Opuntia.
Cacti redirects here. For the software, see Cacti (software).


Cacti

Ferocactus pilosus

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Cactus, see Mammillaria, Melocactus, and Opuntia.
Cacti redirects here. For the software, see Cacti (software).


Cacti

Ferocactus pilosus

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Pachycereeae

Genera
See text

Pachycereeae is a tribe of 15 genera of columnar cacti in the subfamily Cactoideae. They are native to Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States.
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Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 - 1934) was a US botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York.
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Joseph Nelson Rose ( January 11, 1862 - May 4, 1928 ) was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, Indiana.

He received his Ph.D.
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 - 1934) was a US botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York.
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Joseph Nelson Rose ( January 11, 1862 - May 4, 1928 ) was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, Indiana.

He received his Ph.D.
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In scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. Usage and terminology are different for zoology and botany.

Zoology

In zoological nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names that pertain to the same taxon, for example
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Cereus
Mill.

Species
  • Cereus adelmarii
  • Cereus bicolor
  • Cereus comarapanus
  • Cereus fricii
  • Cereus horrispinus
  • Cereus jamacaru
  • Cereus pachyrhizus

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George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, (2 February 1809 - 4 February 1884) was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly-known; he was particularly active in the Rocky Mountains
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Cactus, see Mammillaria, Melocactus, and Opuntia.
Cacti redirects here. For the software, see Cacti (software).


Cacti

Ferocactus pilosus

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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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Monotypic is an adjective that refers to a taxonomic group with only one type:
  • in botany it means that a taxon has only one species; Ginkgo is a monotypic genus, while Ginkgoaceae is a monotypic family.

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Sonoran Desert (sometimes called the Gila Desert after the Gila River or the Low Desert in opposition to the higher Mojave Desert) is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S.
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Arizona State Symbols
Living Symbols
 -Animal Ringtail Cat
 -Bird Cactus Wren
 -Butterfly Two-Tailed Swallowtail
 -Fish Apache Trout
 -Flower Saguaro Blossom
 -Furbearer Ringtail Cat
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Anthem
Himno Nacional Mexicano


Capital
(and largest city) Mexico City

Official languages Spanish (
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 Spanish, Castilian}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —

Spanish (
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Tohono O'odham are a Native American tribe formerly known as the Papago who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest United States and northwest Mexico. "Tohono O'odham" means "People of the Desert.
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Maricopa /ˌmɛ.ɹəˈko.pə/ County is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona.
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Arizona State Symbols
Living Symbols
 -Animal Ringtail Cat
 -Bird Cactus Wren
 -Butterfly Two-Tailed Swallowtail
 -Fish Apache Trout
 -Flower Saguaro Blossom
 -Furbearer Ringtail Cat
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The Cave Creek Complex fire was the second worst wildfire in the state of Arizona to date, after the Rodeo-Chediski fire. The fire started in June 21, 2005 by a lightning strike from the raging monsoons and scorched 243,950 acres (987 km²).
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