MAY 5, 2025
Today, we went to Tucson’s Living Desert Museum next to the Saguaro National Park. We spent three and a half hours enjoying the well-laid out 21 acres 1 1/2-2 miles of walking paths through various habitats.
This cactus caught my eye as we approached the museum entrance. How cool! It is a Crested or Cristate Saguaro cactus.
Unfortunately, greed for $ and power interferes with the above quote.
A docent explained the structure and growth of a saguaro cactus. She put to rest several myths regarding ages of Saguaros based on arms and height. (I confirmed this on various legit internet agencies online.)
- It only grows an inch or two in its first 10 years!
- It takes 35 years before a Saguaro produces its first flowers.
- It takes 20-40 years to reach a height of 2 feet. IF it has a flower then it is 35 – 40 years old. A growth spurt follows.
- It takes almost 60-80 years to grow an arm.
- Some never grow an arm.
- Multiple arms can grow at the same time. (# of arms does NOT add years to determine additional age of the cactus.)
- After 100 years it usually has several arms.
- A height of 15-30 feet may indicate an age of 100-150 years old. Few reach 50ft and/or 200+ years.
- Carbon dating from the older spines at the base of the cactus is the most accurate determination of a saguaro’s age.
- A single Saguaro fruit can contain up to 3500 seeds. When seeds fall, scatter or are dropped by birds, they must locate within vegetation that will protect for the Saguaro’s early growth.
Cross-section of saguaro
Birds will build a home inside the cactus, but they do not return to it to reuse! However, another bird or animal will often make use of it.
Photos from our time exploring:
Mountain Lion – The museum will adopt an orphaned mountain lion. The current one was rescued in March 2013, in San Jose, California. He was only 15 lbs and about 5 1/2 months old. The Living Desert Museum nursed him back to health, but he would not be able to survive back in the wild, so he lives as naturally as possible here.
Mexican Wolf
Comparisons to a coyote -the smallest skull shown, and the standard wolf -the largest skull
Scat and paw comparison below. The Mexican Wolf would be in between these two models.
It surprised me to discover this rescued heron came from the Seattle area!
Nancy and Jim Richardson introduced us to the burrowing owl in Yuma 4 years ago. We stopped by to see them on our way to Mexico.
“Blind as a bat” – what they lack in eyesight, bats make up in hearing and their use of echolocation. This is how big our ears would have to be on us for the same result!
I knew there were different agave plants, but with so many varieties near each other we could easily compare and contrast them from each other.
This was my favorite agave plant – Whale’s Tongue Agave –
The organ pipe cactus have all arms come from the ground
When a docent sprayed water on the creosote bush you could really smell it.
Rocks and minerals are amazing. What can be quite boring or ordinary in normal sunlight, can be stunning in black light.
Copper is an important resource in our area. However, on the global scale it is not a common metal. We see evidence of copper when we see the bluish-green on rocks when out hiking. It occurs in varying amount throughout the Earth’s crust, minerals, rocks and waters, but it is mined only when concentrated as ore.
Almost as though the cactus in the foreground was waving goodbye. đŸ™‚
From here we headed on to Voyager RV Resort for 3 nights. We played a lot of decent pickleball while at Voyager!