Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Arizona















































The saguaro is the quintessential Arizona image. In my postcard collection, these are just six of several Arizona saguaro postcards. Now it so happens, I've been to Arizona a lot. I went to graduate school there, have friends that live there, and was lucky enough to go to a spa in Tucson multiple times. But that's a lot of saguaro.

While the saguaro is found throughout the Sonora Desert, they are most densely scattered around Tuscon. It can take up to 75 years to grow a single arm, and their growth rate can be measured in lines in their needles, just like the rings in trees. There's one genetic abnormality that occurs, a crested saguaro, that is pretty cool to see. I was lucky to see a very large crested saguaro while hiking among them (as in the upper right postcard) around Tucson.

2 comments:

  1. I always loved these cacti...someone planted them on Araby and a few made it; others did not. Dad always commented on them. Dad would climb high in the hills to dig up barrel cactus and wouldn't dream of importing a cactus from Arizona!

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  2. i think arizona can be summed up as cacti and desert, lol!

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