Friday Photo: Bustin’ Blooms
Earlier this week I shared a photo of a flowering saguaro cactus, the flowers pristine and crisp in their infancy. Today I share the effects of a month’s worth of 90- and 100-degree heat: wilted blooms and ripe fruit that the birds love to eat. When the fruit starts to burst open, the tops of the cacti along our hillsides become dotted with blood red, flesh-colored fruits – a stark contrast to the browning desert.
Did you know that saguaro fruit can be harvested and made into jelly? Or that nectar-eating bats (southern long-nosed bats) love pollinating the saguaro’s flowers? I’ve got bat photos, too, from our trail camera. Stay tuned! Click to enlarge.
Consider this, writers: If you had to rely on description alone to ‘show’ your readers the inside of a ripe saguaro fruit – or even the entire tip of a fruited saguaro cactus – how would you describe it? I see so much more when I study the photo than I did with my naked eye … and so many more interesting ways of describing it.
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:48 am
This is how I would describe it but then I again I don’t have the advantage of having actually seen it live.
The fruit of the saguaro plant lines the plant’s case like an arrangement of thorny green bird heads with their brown tongues protruding until their beak opens and is filled to capacity with the fresh red meat of its harvest like a desert prey fed by its mother
Geoff
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July 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 am
Hey Cuz, love the site! I fell in love with your desert back in April and your site helps me stay connected with the wonderful landscape.
This photo to me reminds me of one of your famous rattle snakes with it’s mouth wide open ready to strike!
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Melissa Reply:
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:05 pm
LOVE what you saw, Heather! You’re so right.
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