Flowering Cardon Cactus – Baja California’s Saguaro Look-Alike

May 11, 2014 by 2 Comments
Cardon Cactus in Bloom © 2014 Bo Mackison

Cardon Cactus in Bloom © 2014 Bo Mackison

Not a saguaro , but a relative!

The giant cardon cactus dominates many of the deserts of Baja California and the coastal region of the state of Sonora in Mexico. It is closely related to the saguaro of Arizona and Sonora, but cannot tolerate cold (unless carefully protected) so these two giant cacti occupy different geographical regions.

This specimen was in bloom at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix on a visit in March, and it was my lucky day. It was the first of the year’s blooms.

 

 

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A Sonoran Desert Gift – Saguaro Cactus in Bloom

May 10, 2014 by 3 Comments
Sagauro Flower - Like A Wax Specimen

Saguaro Flower – Like A Wax Specimen ©2014 Bo Mackison

A saguaro forest is awe-inspiring any time of the year.

But it is even more spectacular during May and June when many saguaros are topped with highly decorative, three-inch wide yellow-centered, white blossoms.

Four Saguaro Flowers

Four Saguaro Flowers ©2014 Bo Mackison

The flowers open at night.

They are highly fragrant, like overripe fruit, and attract the lesser long-nosed bat, a nocturnal creature and its most prolific pollinator. Flowers stay in full bloom throughout the next morning, then they quickly shrivel into a crispy brown shell.

Many saguaro, especially the older ones, have hundreds of flowers. Only a few flowers bloom in a single day, yet the saguaro flowering season lasts eight to ten weeks.

Saguaro Cactus in Bloom

Saguaro Blossom like a Trumpet ©2014 Bo Mackison

Bats are ideal pollinators.

Since the flowers are positioned high in the air, they are easily accessible to the swooping bats plus the blossoms are extremely durable – they look like they are dipped in wax! – and are able to withstand the bat’s weight.

The flowers produce some nectar after sunrise, and so also attract bees and doves during the day, but to a lesser degree.

Untitled

Macro Saguaro ©2014 Bo Mackison

A few flowers bloom at eye level, especially on cacti whose arms are drooping towards the ground.

It takes some persistent searching – and luck – to find a blossom that can be photographed up close and personal. Most of the flowers are high atop the cacti, twenty to forty feet in the air!
Saguaro Flower

Life Cycle of Saguaro Blossoms ©2014 Bo Mackison

The blossoms that are pollinated develop into deep red, fleshy fruits in late June.

Not only do the fruits feed the bird and animal populations of the desert, they are also a traditional food of the Tohono O’odham. These people once harvested the fruits using long poles fashioned from cactus ribs. The tradition still persists, though on a limited basis.

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Spring in the Sonoran

February 16, 2012 by 7 Comments
Spring in the Sonoran

Spring in the Sonoran © 2012 Bo Mackison

An ordinary desert supports a much greater variety of plants than does either a forest or a prairie. ~ Elsworth Huntington

The last weeks of February mark the beginning of Spring in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson. Fewer nights will see below freezing weather, although it did snow in the higher elevations of the mountains a couple of days ago. I can still see remnants of the snow in the mountain saddles of the Santa Rita Mountains. But in the lower elevations, the average high temperatures for the days are nearing 70˚ F (about 21˚ C) and only a few nights get chilly.

The desert marigolds are out in force, especially on the south-facing slopes in the Tucson Mountains. I took the above photo featuring the marigolds plus a variety of greening desert plants at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum just west of Tucson, one of my favorite nature haunts. I’ve talked to museum staff and park rangers at nearby Saguaro National Park, and everyone is expecting a good year for the desert wildflowers.

I find my lack of experience living in the desert amusing. Last year, when I was so taken with the desert landscape, truly falling in love with the desert, I didn’t have enough experience to know that the desert was exceptionally barren. A prolonged drought plus severe cold and a hard frost in early February of 2011 kept the desert bloom to a minimum. This year, by comparison, the desert in coming alive before my eyes – trees in the riparian corridors are dressed in spring green, desert flowers are blooming, even the small shrubs and plants in the desert are leafing out.

The desert is alive with green and the flowers are blooming. And this is just the beginning. Yay!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is admiring the beginning of spring in the desert. Perhaps the word “admiring” is a bit weak. Bo is in the throes of a love affair with Spring in the Sonoran Desert. There. That’s better.

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Driving in Tucson – And a Visit to Tucson Botanical Gardens

February 25, 2011 by 11 Comments
"Daddy's Old Sportcoat" Cactus

“Grandpa’s Old Sports Coat” Cactus © 2011 Bo Mackison

This cactus isn’t really named “Grandpa’s Old Sports Coat”, but honestly, my grand-dad had a coat with this exact plaid pattern in the mid 1960s. He never wore yellow flowers on the top of his head, not that I remember, but still. It made me laugh. And I needed some laughing the day I visited with these plants.

It was the day I finally decided to drive in Tucson proper. It seemed time to get to know the city. For over two weeks, I’d been avoiding the busier roads, because that’s how I drive. Even in mid-sized Madison, I often choose to drive through the city rather than drive the more efficient expressway. I’m not one who particularly likes to drive when there’s lots of swerving in and out of traffic. But, being solo in Tucson means there is no one else to hand the car keys to, so I drive. Sigh!

Star Lines

Star Lines © 2011 Bo Mackison

I planned on making only three stops, first two stores and then the Tucson Botanical Gardens. I found my first destination, the bookstore. I wanted to get a decent map of Tucson, and it made sense to go there first. Later, when my iPhone ran out of power and I no longer had my “cheater” map on my phone, I was glad to have the paper map. Inconvenient though it was to keep pulling off the road to check the map, at least I had a vague idea where I was.

Actually, vague isn’t quite true. I was “lost and found” a half dozen times on that first day driving unfamiliar city streets. But I kept finding my way through.

What was it that Robert Frost said? “The only way out is through.” (It was Frost, I looked up the poem, it’s in A Servant to Servants, I always thought that poem unusual, but interesting.) And here I thought he was talking about getting out of a challenging situation, or walking through  life when you hadn’t the energy for one more step.

I didn’t realize it was a perfectly appropriate quote for my driving habits, too.

A Thorny Situations

A Thorny Situation © 2011 Bo Mackison

After an hour of driving in circles–the one-way streets are always going the wrong way–I decided I couldn’t get too terribly lost if I kept heading south, then west, then south, then west. It worked. I wove my way through the streets, and finally arrived at a place that looked familiar. Whew!

In the middle of all that lost driving, I stumbled upon the entrance to the Tucson Botanical Gardens. The house which belonged to the donor of the gardens (once a thriving landscaping business) is now the visitor center and gift store. I wandered through several gardens, including the childrens garden, a sensory garden, and a little Zen garden, though I didn’t see everything. Next time.

A few of the cactus looked like they had seen better days. The cactus have good reason for looking a little disheveled. Tucson and much of Arizona had record freezing temperatures a couple of weeks ago. The cacti are not adapted for temperature drops to 13 degrees. A docent I spoke with said it would be quite awhile before they knew the full impact of the cold spell, but many plants, including the aloe and the prickly pear, looked like they might not recover.

Packer Green and Gold in Tucson?

Packer Green and Gold in Tucson? © 2011 Bo Mackison

I never did make it to my third stop – the REI on the other side of town. I wanted to get one of those snazzy flashlights that have a stretchy band like a head band. You can wear the light around your head, like a miner’s lamp, and then your hands are free for holding camera equipment and hiking sticks when you get caught a half mile from the trail and it gets dark. I think the sun sets more rapidly in Arizona than it does in Wisconsin.

When I was at the botanical gardens, I was quite remiss in getting proper IDs for these plants. I took their photographs because they had such interesting details, but quite forgot about checking names. I even found a green and gold plant–do you think there are a lot of Green Bay Packer fans in the Southwest?

This post has been a rambling affair tonight. It’s been a long day, not driving around town or taking photos, but doing paperwork. Yes, even in Tucson, even on days that are utterly delightful, there are days when work needs to be done.

Actually, I am quite thrilled. I was invited to participate in a summer’s worth of shows in the Chicago area. And so today–for eight straight hours–I filled out paperwork and other goodies that were required for the five shows I’ll be doing. Then I had to dash to the post office before closing time to send the papers express mail. It’s exciting news and it is a great way to start planning my summer art fair season.

Now to take a little time for some R & R, and then I’ve another drive planned for tomorrow. But not in the city. I’m heading to the mountains!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for two months, exhibiting her photography in art shows, taking photographs, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and living life “solo.”  And she is discovering more than she had anticipated.

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