Tacoma2012: Phoenix, AZ - Botanical Garden

Kimberly Caron requested more educational blog posts.

We took a trip to the Phoenix Botanical Gardens this past Saturday. They get most of their plants from highway projects and other building sites that want to relocate plants. They have over 50,000 individual plants at the garden. On Earth there are over 250,000 known species of plants.

The Saguaro Cactus Blossom is the state flower of Arizona. Saguaro is pronounced "sewaro" not "cigaro". As a note, Arizona was the last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union in 1912. Frank Lloyd Wright died in Phoenix and Wonder Woman was born in Phoenix, the capital of Arizona.

The Saguaro Cactus lives for about 200 years. Between 50 and 75 years it grows its first arm. The Saguaro weighs as much as 80 pounds a foot when full of water. It is also made of 80% water. A plant can be 40 feet tall and weigh over six tons. The Saguaro has a shallow root system and extends the same area as the part above ground. So, if you see a 20 foot tall Saguaro, the roots are all around it in a 20 foot circle. It flowers once a year (at night) and if pollinated (mainly by bats and moths) it produces a fruit the size of a kiwi. The fruit contains about 2,000 seeds. Gila Woodpeckers and Gilded Flickers make nests in the Saguaros. They hollow out a section and let in scab over for a few days. The inside of the Saguaro is a wooden skeleton and desert folk used the wood to build things (huts for example). A Saguaro without arms is called a spear. Saguaros are a protected species - it is illegal to vandalize a Saguaro in Arizona.