All About Saguaros: Facts, Lore, Photos

They're stately, but sometimes amusing, icons of the Old West - huge columns standing with rounded arm held in a seemingly endless number of poses. Meet the giant saguaro cactus, native of the Sonoran Desert, which with a few exceptions is the only place in the world where Carnegiea gigantea grows. The saguaro cactus provides home and food to many desert animals, as well as to peoples of the desert tribes. Discover the stages of the saguaro's long life span and see how it is a protected part of the desert ecology and cultures. Color photographs vividly show this cactus a its grandest and most beautiful and at its most vulnerable.