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Wednesday 23 May 2012

Monarchs of the Desert

After a great monsoon season, a relatively mild winter and some more gentle showers during early spring, it is time for the Saguaros to burst forth. Now most of these desert monoliths are crowned with opulent wreaths of buds and flowers.





Masses and masses of them swathed round and round the tops of most of their limbs.




The buds don't all open at the same time, each day a few will burst forth in a magnificent display that lasts a few hours before withering away to be replaced the next day by another set.




But when these flowers are so many feet up in the air, how do you get a reasonable picture of one of these succulent blooms?


Well that is when an extremely tall spouse with very long arms comes in handy! We managed to find a relatively short Saguaro in bloom and by standing on his tip-toes he got this beautiful 'birds eye view' of a blossom!

Nature Notes hosted by Michelle at Rambling Woods.

6 comments:

Rambling Woods said...

This is amazing Celeste..they are just as pretty as any bloom in a more expected place but more special as they are in the desert... beautiful.... Michelle

Libby said...

I had no idea saguaro cacti bloomed! How interesting! The waxy white flowers are really beautiful too! Thanks for sharing :)

Kathie Brown said...

Celeste, love seeing these!

Celeste said...

Thanks Michelle, they are unexpected aren't they. I think the blooms are stunning.

Celeste said...

Hi Libby, the white saguaro blooms are superb aren't they? I am happy you liked the post,

Celeste said...

Well Kathie, you do know that you are largely 'to blame' for my love affair with the wildlife of Tuscon :)

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