When are the Saguaro Cactus in Bloom in AZ?
Every spring giant saguaro cactus produce one of the most beautiful flowers in the Sonoran Desert. These big white flowers bloom during the night and close the next day. They get their pollination by birds, insects, and sometimes bats.
These cactus bloom throughout the months of April, May, and June. A lot of people wonder if the flowers could be blooming earlier than in the past because of increasing desert heat, that may cause the plants to start to be out of sync with migration patterns of their pollinators.
Saguaro National Park has implemented a Citizen Science project for studying saguaro flower phenology. Phenology is the examination of natural life happenings, like when a plant blooms. Every day they go to the desert and count the saguaro’s flowers. Their goal is to tie the flowering times with meteorological extents and past records on saguaro flowers to gain insight about changes in saguaro phenology after a certain period of time.
Saguaros reach their reproductive age and put their first flowers forth when they get to a height of around 7 feet, or when they reach 30-65 years of age. Saguaro flowering starts around the last 2 weeks of April, and peak flowering happens throughout the last week of May through the 1st week in June.
Saguaro flowering is triggered by winter rains in addition to the increased length of the day, and the warmer temperatures of springtime.
Saguaro fruit usually ripens into a reddish color in late June and early July.
Source:
- “Saguaro Flower Power Project.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/sagu/getinvolved/saguaro-flower-power-project.htm.
Cactus For Sale Cave Creek, Arizona
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