Saguaro National Park, part 2
Saguaro National Park, AZ - Sunday, 29 Apr 2018, 1pm
After a lazy (river) morning at the hotel in Tucson today we drove out to Saguaro National Park. What's different from our visit to the park yesterday is that we went west instead of east. Saguaro NP is geographically split into two parts, one on each side of the Tucson valley.
It turns out one side's not a whole lot different from the other. Both have similar landscape and similar cacti- notably the saguaro.
On one of the trails we hiked today we saw saguaro in different stages of life. The most interesting thing to me was seeing these cacti just before or after death. ...Not because of the grimness of what death represents, but because of what the natural processes of death reveal about how these plants lived. Here's the upper part of a dead saguaro still standing:
Note how the wood structure resembles bones. These cacti have sort of an internal skeleton that supports them, surrounding a softer interior where water and nutrients are stored. That's a key to how they survive the harsh environment here in the Sonoran desert. BTW, this cactus was probably at least 200 years old when it died.
Another the dead cacti reveal is how they support animal life. Birds peck holes in the outer flesh of the cactus. The cactus forms a a thin layer of bark, called a boot, around the hollow created. This makes it a safe place for birds to nest while posing no further harm to the plant. When a cactus dies and is stripped down to its "bones", these "boots" can be found sitting in a pile at the base.
Next: We visit Tucson Mountain Park
After a lazy (river) morning at the hotel in Tucson today we drove out to Saguaro National Park. What's different from our visit to the park yesterday is that we went west instead of east. Saguaro NP is geographically split into two parts, one on each side of the Tucson valley.
It turns out one side's not a whole lot different from the other. Both have similar landscape and similar cacti- notably the saguaro.
On one of the trails we hiked today we saw saguaro in different stages of life. The most interesting thing to me was seeing these cacti just before or after death. ...Not because of the grimness of what death represents, but because of what the natural processes of death reveal about how these plants lived. Here's the upper part of a dead saguaro still standing:
Note how the wood structure resembles bones. These cacti have sort of an internal skeleton that supports them, surrounding a softer interior where water and nutrients are stored. That's a key to how they survive the harsh environment here in the Sonoran desert. BTW, this cactus was probably at least 200 years old when it died.
Another the dead cacti reveal is how they support animal life. Birds peck holes in the outer flesh of the cactus. The cactus forms a a thin layer of bark, called a boot, around the hollow created. This makes it a safe place for birds to nest while posing no further harm to the plant. When a cactus dies and is stripped down to its "bones", these "boots" can be found sitting in a pile at the base.
Next: We visit Tucson Mountain Park