Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog » Saguaro

Saguaro Saturday

Steve Belt — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:20:30 +0000

I honestly have been on the lookout for this week’s saguaro since starting Saguaro Saturdays. As you look below, you will see the classic shape of a saguaro, as often depicted in graphics as the true icon for Arizona and the desert southwest. The trouble is, finding this shape occurring naturally in the desert is actually far more rare than you might expect.

As fate would have it, this specimen is actually along the 3 mile commute from my home to my office, within McDowell Mountain Ranch. It’s in the median along Bell Road, and now seems so obvious that I wonder why it took me so long to spot. FYI, in the background of the photo on the left is Bell Pass. If you are fit, and have a few hours to kill, the hike up Bell Pass is very much worth the effort. It is, however, a moderately strenuous 3.5 mile hike, which gradually gets steeper and steeper as you near the top. The views from the top range east over Fountain Hills to Four Peaks, and west across North Phoenix and Scottsdale all the way out to the White Tank Mountains (and beyond). I’ve personally descended the trail on my mountain bike, but always climb from the back side.

Saguaro Saturday

Steve Belt — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:24:35 +0000

Today’s Saguaro comes to us from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in North Scottsdale. Because I live near the preserve, and frequently ride my mountain bike in the preserve, there’s a good chance we’ll be using cactus from there in future editions. The city of Scottsdale is currently building the Gateway Access Area along Thompson Peak Parkway, just north of Bell Rd. Although I still think we paid too much for the land for this location, it’s going to be a welcome access point when complete.

At any rate, for those NOT in Arizona, you may think that every saguaro has arms. Most often a saguaro is photographed because it has lots of arms hanging off, creating interest, so today I thought I’d show perhaps one of the larger saguaro you will ever see that doesn’t have any arms. I realize there’s nothing to give scale to this beauty, but she stands approximately 25 feet tall by my reckoning. I could be off by a bit, but trust me when I say, this saguaro dwarfed me.

Not much is know about the development of arms, what causes them, and when, but give this saguaro looks pretty healthy, I would think arms will likely start budding soon…maybe within the next 10 years or so. I say soon for a saguaro, as saguaro are estimated to live as long as 150 years, and may take as long as 75 years to develop arms. Enjoy!

Saguaro Saturday

Steve Belt — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:21:11 +0000

Today, the prickley pear that are in bloom get their chance to outshine the Saguaro. The lot captured below were along Norterra Parkway in North Phoenix. As you can see from the photo below, if you were a bird that liked the pear fruit, you would be staring at an all-you-can eat buffet, which is a good thing for the prickly pear, as the fruit being eaten is important to the cultivation of prickly pear in the wild..

Below, you can see a close-up of the brilliant red pear fruit. Some people do eat these, however the spines on the exterior need to be carefully removed. And according to Kelley Koehler, some people even eat the paddles. In my experience (and I have too much experience tangling with cactus) of all of the cactus in the Sonoran Desert, prickly pear are the least hazardous. They aren’t extensively thorned, and the thorns aren’t as barbed and/or poisonous, like other species I’ve wrestled with.

Saguaro Saturday

Steve Belt — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:57:14 +0000

And so it begins, the first new Saguaro Saturday. For those in Phoenix, I’m sure you can’t help but notice that the prickly pear are out in bloom with often an intense explosion of their red pear fruit. I’ve got some great photos of them, but they are going to have to wait, as it just doesn’t seem right to supplant a saguaro on this first official Saguaro Saturday.

To kick things off, I thought I’d show one of the more prolifically armed saguaros I’ve ever seen. This big guy has (by my count) 15 arms growing off the main trunk. That’s probably the result of a drip system that has been feeding it just the right amount of water to be healthy, but not so much water that it’s at risk to fall over during a heavy wind.

For those curious, this guy is at the intersection of Tatum Blvd & Foothills Dr in Paradise Valley. I spotted him this week after shooting photos of my newest rental listing in Paradise Valley. So impressive was he, that I had to flip a legal U-Turn and come back for a few photos.

Saguaro Saturdays

Steve Belt — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:19:39 +0000

One of the more frequently viewed posts for the Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog is a post I did last December about a saguaro that fell down and split in half. Google sends people here frequently with the only search word being “saguaro”.

I’ve done a normal Google search on saguaro and this blog doesn’t rank very high, being considered approximately #350 of 1.9 Million possible sites. To be honest, I can’t imagine anyone is wading through the top 350 sites for saguaro to finally get to that post. Doing a Google image search, however, the photo below often ranks in the top 20, which must be why Google sends them here:

As a result, photos of saguaros got me thinking, maybe there’s enough interest in them that people would like to see more, and thus I’m planting a seed. Saturdays shall be Saguaro Saturdays in honor of our state flower (the saguaro blossom), and what is often recognized as the definitive icon for Arizona or the southwest. Each Saturday, I’ll feature a picture of a saguaro that I stumble upon throughout the week. And now and again, I’ll probably sprinkle in some other cactus varieties, particularly when they are in bloom (as prickly pear are right now).

I was going to start with a new photo today, but this post is already long enough, so you’ll have to check back in next Saturday for the first new photo. But before I end this, I feel compelled to point out that my ranking for saguaro is exactly 1 slot higher than Jay Thompson and his saguaro photo: