Last week Hubby and I visited the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. I bought half priced admission Groupons for us with the intent of attending their flashlight garden tour. The flashlight tour sounded really cool because in the desert most of the wild life comes out at night! But, alas, story of our lives, we waited too long and they ended the flashlight tour. So, we decided to wake up early one morning and visit the garden before the heat got too unbearable!
We were pleasantly surprised, the garden was really interesting!
Who knew there were so many different types of cacti!?
 |
| Octopus Cactus |
 |
| Old Man of the Andes Hairy Cactus |
 |
| Organ Pipe Cactus |
 |
| I don't remember the name of this one...but it's pretty! |
The iconic cacti that we typically see in Western movies is called the Saguaro (pronounced Sah-whar-oh):
 |
| The Saguaros are the cacti with the thick stem and multiple arms. The cactus at the bottom of the picture is called a Prickly Pear. You can eat them! |
Saguaros are only found at a certain altitude in the Sonoran Desert, which happens to be mostly in Arizona!
 |
| This is what a dead Saguaro cactus looks like! |
You may or may not be able to see in the pictures, but there are little holes in the cactus's body. They are made by Gila Woodpeckers! The birds peck holes in the bodies of the cacti and build nests inside the cacti to raise their young. The holes are well insulated from heat and cold. Pretty smart!
The garden even went as far as educating us on the first Native Americans that made the Sonoran Desert their home.
Oh! And you know how I've been commenting that there are no squirrels in the desert? I was wrong! There are two types of squirrels that live in the desert: Harris Antelope Squirrels and Round Tailed Ground Squirrels. I actually saw one at the botanical garden too!!! (Kane was super jealous when I told him about it...) I wasn't able to get a picture though, because they are amazingly fast. Here's one I found on the internet:
They're kinda cute aren't they? Like a cross between a chipmunk and squirrel!
The botanical garden was totally worth the price of my half price admission ticket! I learned a lot. Now I can pretend to know what I am talking about when people debate me about desert trivia. Because that's totally going to happen. People debate about desert trivia all the time, ok?
Until next time,
(Your resident desert expert)
No comments:
Post a Comment