59 seconds

Fifty-nine seconds (thanks, metadata) before I took the photograph of the giant saguaro cactus, Carnegiea gigantea, that you saw in the last post, I’d taken a closer picture of the arm bud.

This cactus was growing a few minutes’ walk from the visitor center at Sabino Canyon in northeastern Tucson on October 2, 2014.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

Two things

Here are two things I learned about saguaro cacti, Carnegiea gigantea, when I was in Arizona last fall:

1) Some young saguaros get extra protection from growing in the shelter of a bush or tree. Today’s picture shows an instance of that, even if this saguaro had already grown to a medium size.

2) Some saguaros grow as a single column, while others develop arms that branch off that column. In this photograph, taken at Sabino Canyon in the northeast fringe of Tucson on October 2, 2014, I count six (or possibly seven) well-established arms emerging from near the base of the main column, plus the bud of a new arm about halfway up it.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

Dense saguaro colony

How about the density of this saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) colony behind the visitor center in the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park on September 29, 2014?

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

Lizard

Behind the visitor center in the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park on September 29, 2014, I saw this lizard. I don’t know what species it is, but you’re welcome to read a page about some of the lizards that inhabit that national park.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman