The saguaro, with its great size and characteristic shape—its arms stretching heavenward, its silhouette often resembling a human—has become the emblem of the Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona and northwestern Mexico. The largest and tallest cactus in the United States, it is both familiar and an object of fascination and curiosity.

This book offers a complete natural history of this enduring and iconic desert plant. Gathering everything from the saguaro's role in Sonoran Desert ecology to its adaptations to the desert climate and its sacred place in Indigenous culture, this book shares precolonial through current scientific findings.

The saguaro is charismatic and readily accessible but also decidedly different from other desert flora. The essays in this book bear witness to our ongoing fascination with the great cactus and the plant's unusual characteristics, covering the saguaro's: history of discovery, place in the cactus family, ecology, anatomy and physiology, genetics, and ethnobotany. The Saguaro Cactus offers testimony to the cactus's prominence as a symbol, the perceptions it inspires, its role in human society, and its importance in desert ecology.

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Yes, you can access The Saguaro Cactus by David Yetman,Alberto Búrquez,Kevin Hultine,Michael Sanderson in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

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Publisher

University of Arizona Press

Year

Print ISBN

eBook ISBN

Subtopic

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
1. A Saguaro Primer: Carnegiea gigantea in History
2. Cactaceae: The Cactus Family, Columnar Cacti, and the Saguaro
3. Ecology of the Saguaro
4. The Anatomy and Physiology of the Saguaro
5. Genomics of the Saguaro
6. The Annual Saguaro Harvest and Crop Cycle of the Papago, with Reference to Ecology and Symbolism
Notes
References
Index

About this book

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Table of contents