The Sentinal

by Jon Burch Photography

Title

The Sentinal

Artist

Jon Burch Photography

Medium

Photograph - Digital Capture/digital Painting

Description

Saguaro Cacti at the Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix.

The Saguaro Cacti or Carnegiea gigantea) is a large, tree-sized plant species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea, which can grow to be over 70 feet tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is the State Wildflower of Arizona.
Saguaros have a relatively long life span. They take up to 75 years to develop a side arm. A saguaro without arms is called a spear. The arms are grown to increase the plant's reproductive capacity leading to more flowers and fruit. The growth rate of saguaros is strongly dependent on precipitation; saguaros in drier western Arizona grow only half as fast as those in and around Tucson. Some specimens may live for more than 150 years; the largest known saguaro is the Champion Saguaro, growing in Maricopa County reaches heights of 45 feet with a girth of around 10 feet. However, these cacti can grow anywhere from 40 to 60 feet tall. They grow slowly from seed rather than cuttings. Whenever it rains, saguaros soak up the rainwater, the cactus visibly expand, holding in the the rainwater. Slowly the cacti arms conserve the water and slowly consume it.

The spines on saguaro having a height less than six feet grow rapidly, up to a tenth of an inch per day. When held up to the light or bisected, alternating light and dark bands transverse to the long axis of spines can be seen and have been correlated to daily growth. In columnar cacti, spines almost always grow in aureoles which originate at the apex of the plant. The individual spine growth reach mature size in the first season and then cease to grow. Areoles are moved to the side and the apex continues to grow upwards placing the older spines are towards the base of a columnar cactus and newer spines are near the apex.

The night blooming white and yellow cactus flowers appear April through June and the sweet, ruby-colored fruit matures by late June. Saguaro flowers are require cross pollination with large quantities of pollen required for complete pollination in the numerous ovules. A well pollinated fruit will contain several thousand tiny seeds.

The major pollinators are bats, primarily the lesser long-nosed bat, feeding on the nectar from the night-blooming flowers, which often remain open in the morning. There are a number of floral characteristics geared toward bat pollination: nocturnal opening of the flowers, nocturnal maturation of pollen, very rich nectar, position high above the ground, durable blooms that can withstand a bat's weight, and fragrance emitted at night. One additional piece of evidence is that the amino acids in the pollen appear to help sustain lactation in bats. The flowers remain open into the daylight hours and continue to produce nectar after sunrise. Doves and bees appear to be the primary daytime pollinators.

Some digital effects were applied to this original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Ordered images will not contain the FAA watermark.

Image copyright 2016 Jon Burch Photography all rights reserved.

Uploaded

May 3rd, 2013

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