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Meet a Saguaro Cactus

A saguaro cactus is a huge plant that grows in the Sonoran Desert in the United States. It can grow to be 18 metres tall.

A saguaro cactus produces flowers.

Saguaro cactus

Red fruits filled with seeds form inside a saguaro’s

flowers.

Branch, or arm

Stem

In the desert, there is not much rain. When it does rain, the saguaro takes in water through its roots and stores it in its fat stems.

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Name Date

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Write down your ideas.

Think about these questions, too.Did you spot the holes in the saguaro’s stem?

How do you think the plant’s arms, or branches, could be useful to animals?

Does the plant produce something that could be food for its animal neighbours?

How do you think animals might get water from the giant cactus?

How do you think a saguaro cactus is helpful to the animals that share its desert habitat?

Let’sTa l k

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Answers

Food

A saguaro cactus’s flowers produce a sweet, sticky liquid called nectar. Birds, bats and insects feed on the nectar.

Bat

Red fruits form inside a saguaro’s flowers. Birds and bats feed on the fruit. When fruits fall to the ground, animals such as desert tortoises, mice and coyotes eat the fruit.

Water

Rats, rabbits and deer eat the fleshy stems of young saguaro cacti to get the water that’s stored inside.

Dove

Woodpecker

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Homes

Gila woodpeckers peck nest holes in a saguaro’s stems using their beaks. They lay their eggs and raise their chicks inside the holes.

When a woodpecker family leaves its nest hole, owls, sparrows, finches and other birds move in and use the holes as nests.

Hawks build nests made of sticks in the arms of a saguaro cactus.

Nest

Hawk

Gila woodpecker