Carnegiea gigantea

 Carnegiea gigantea (Saguaro)

Cactaceae

• It is arguably the most famous cactus in the world-as well as iconic image of the desert southwest- with its massive form and upraised branches that give it an almost human form. While it is common in the desert uplands of Arizona and adjacent parts of northern Mexico, it is rarely uncommon in California. It has a CNPS Rare Plant Rank: 2B, rare, threatened, or endangered in California; common elsewhere. Saguaros are found infrequently on gravelly slopes and flats of creosote bush scrub to about 1,500 feet near the Colorado River and in the Whipple Mountains of southeastern San Bernandino County. "California Desert Plants, Philip W Rundel, Robert J Gustafson, Micahel E Kauffmann."
• This unmistakable columnar cactus is the most familiar plant in the eastern Sonoran Desert. Bee researchers have shown that a saguaro produces an average of 300 trumpet-like flowers a season. Bats have lost out in the present day to pesticides and habitat loss, but bee pollinators have taken over and are now responsible for most of the fruit set in saguaro. Saguaros are largely restricted to rocky hillsides and coarse gravels on upper and lower bajada slopes. Three-fourths of the flowering is concentrated within six weeks, usually between the last of May and early July. However, a few blooms are spotted early in April, and infrequent stragglers open into the fall. "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflores, 1988". 
• Seed in flats for transplanting/light-dark alteration; warm temperature/Time of planting: spring-summer. "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988".
• This giant cactus is common on the Sonoran mainland and on Tiburon Island; it does not occur on San Esteban Island. It generally reaches maximum density on sites inland from, but adjacent to, Pachycereus pringlei. It can be readily distinguished by its fewer branches which usually emerge more than one-third the distance above the ground. Flowering occurs in early summer and the fruit ripens shortly before the onset of the summer rains. The fruit is green and spineless on the outside; when fully ripe,  it splits open to reveal succulent red pulp in which numerous shiny black seeds are embedded. Firemaking: the firedrill was often made from a piece of dry sahuaro rib. The drill stick could be a single piece of wood because of the length of the raw material. A piece of sahuaro rib was often used to make the mainshaft of handle of a compound drill stick. Food: the fruit-gathering pole used specifically for sahauro and cardon was called hacosáa, which was also the name for the Big Dipper in the Ursa Major constellation. The Big Dipper was said to resemble a sahuaro/cardon fruit-gathering pole. A typical hacosáa was about 5 m long. Two sticks of creosotebush, each on the order of 10 to 15 cm long, were tied transversely to one end of the pole at acute angles. The top stick was called ihactífa. The bottom one, tied about 30 to 40 cm lower, was called ihahíiquet 'made a child' i.e., child of the upper stick. With the cross pieces tied in such a manner, the fruit was dislodged by pushing up or pulling down the pole. Games: sahuaro fruit skins were used in the men's game called cacómaloj 'stick throwers'. The participants sat opposite each other, each with three pointed sticks and several fruit skins cut into narrow strips. The game consisted of taking turns throwing a stick at the opponent's fruit strips. If a player pierced one and returned it to his side without dropping it from the stick, he got to continue. The player who got all of his opponent's fruit strips won that round. A previously determined number of rounds were played. The men played for large stakes: guns and knives. They became skilled at piercing every narrow strips called hacóml 'pierced things. Boys used a much wider strip called haxz iipl "dog's tongue". They played to win a bet of a certain number of cactus fruits which the losers ha to go into the desert to gather. It was remembered that on one occasion the losers refused to pay their debt. The winners grabbed them, removed their shirts and tied the losers to trees, where they left them for a time in the summer heat. Then they released them and considered the debt paid. Medicine: rheumatism was treated by heating a slab of sahuaro stem (with the spines removed) in hot coals, wrapping it i a cloth and placing it on the aching part of the body. Sealant: as reported by Bowen and Moser (1968), pottery vessels or ollas for making wine were sealed from seepage in the following manner: leafy branches of creosotebush were packed tightly around the outside of the olla. Dry sahuaro flowers, called mojépe ipolcam sahuaro tails, were placed inside and ignited. Juices from the flowers and the creosotebush sealed the olla. Shelter: the dry woody ribs sometimes were used for making wattle and daub hause walls. Openings between the ribs were filled with mud. The Supernatural: to stop rain, one built a fire against a sahuaro using Atriplex polycarpa for fuel. If the participant had enough faith the rain would stop. The placenta of a newborn infant was buried at the base of a sahuaro or cardon. This insured a long healthy life for the baby. The sahuaro was one of several common cacti which were once people. Tanning: because of their high oil content the mashed seeds were used to soften deer skins. Other uses: sahuaro ribs sometimes served as canes for the elderly or blind and as the steadying pole held by the foot drum dancer. "People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser."'