Saguaro Fruit Ripen

Happy Cactus Monday!



Many of the saguaro flowers have dried and ripe fruit are starting to split open revealing their red color.



A few white blossoms are still lingering on some cacti. Here's the crested saguaro on the Nature Loop trail.

Open saguaro fruit resemble red flowers:

The air smells sweet and various birds feast on the fruit all day long.

White-winged Dove

Gila Woodpecker

House Finches

House Sparrows

Traditionally, the fruit is picked off the tops of the cacti with long poles made of saguaro ribs.

Image by David Bygott (Kibuyu)

After the fruit is boiled for syrup, the seeds and pulp are spread out to dry in the sun.

Image by Calc-tufa

Each fruit has about 2000 tiny black poppy like seeds inside. Some say saguaro fruit tastes like figs with a hint of strawberry flavor. Saguaro fruit were once an important food source for the Tohono O'odham (Papago) Native Americans. Now they're mostly enjoyed by birds and bats. Chris and I plan to visit the canyon in the evening to see if we can observe bats feeding on the saguaro fruits.

For more Cactus Monday posts, visit Teri's Painted Daisies.