Lesson from a Cactus

The Saguaro is the classic American southwest icon. It represents, in one image, "the desert". You can find it in stylized images or photographs. It is present in the classic western movies to prove the location.

The Saguaro cactus is a special cactus. It is only naturally occurring in the Sonoran Desert. It can be found in Arizona, a portion of northern Mexico, and a corner of California. Nowhere else does this magnificent cactus grow. It is very localized. Near Tucson, Arizona, there is a national park devoted entirely to the Saguaro because it is so plentiful there.

The cactus is very long lived. It will typically take 50 years before it grows its first arm. Some are over 150 years old. There is one version of this cactus called the "cristate saguaro" in which the arms are fused into a bundle at the top, looking something like a green, prickly brain on a pole. Scientists haven't been able to figure out what causes this mutation because it takes so long for the cactus to grow that it outlives the scientists doing the testing. And they can be quite large. Some Saguaros have been known to grow over 50 feet tall and weigh up to 7 tons.

The Saguaro is a desert mainstay. Gila Woodpeckers and Gilded Flickers will dig holes in its sides to create safe nests for their young. These nests, no matter how intrusive they need to be, typically don't seem to bother the cactus one bit. And since they never return to the same nest, other birds such as the Cactus Wren or the Elf Owl can use the opening later for their nests.

The Saguaro bloom is the state flower of Arizona. These cacti will typically produce a bouquet of white flowers at their various tips, providing nectar for bats and for bees and other insects. Eventually, the white flowers fall off and the fruit that they leave ripens, splitting open in a bright red display. Birds of all sorts will come to feed on these treasures.

Here is a little piece of trivia. I like to take nature photos. Since these things are so awesome, I'm always keeping an eye out for an interesting Saguaro. One thing I keep an eye out for is your standard, two-armed version. You know the one. It's in every icon. It's the standard cactus. Everyone knows what it looks like. It has two arms, one on each side, growing out and then up. You've seen it. You know you have. Funny thing. I haven't. Well, to be accurate, I have only seen it rarely. Twice, to be specific. I've driven through the Saguaro National Park more than once. I've hiked and driven through various parts of Arizona's deserts. I've likely seen thousands of these endangered cacti. And in all that time, I've seen exactly two of them that actually match what everyone thinks of when they think "southwest cactus". A large number of them are too young to have any arms. Those that have arms typically have multiple arms -- three, four, or more. Occasionally I'll find one with two arms ... but they're not normally on opposite sides of the cactus from each other. Sometimes I'll get a glimpse of the classic cactus with an arm on either side, only to find that it is hiding a third one behind it or some such. Oddly, the cactus that everyone equates with Arizona -- the two-armed cactus -- is almost never seen anywhere.

The cactus itself is interesting to me. It is an endangered cactus with extremely limited range. It can be ancient and survive in environments that would kill you and me. It provides food and shelter for life in the desert. It's in interesting cactus to me. But I learn an important lesson when I examine the stereotype compared to the real thing. The stereotype almost never matches the real thing. So the next time someone suggests, for instance, that "Christians are like ____" based on a stereotype or "Calvinists think that ___" or "Conservatives believe ___", be cautious. Like the large gap between the image of the Saguaro and its reality, often it is true that icons don't match what is true.