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Ecoscenario: Saguaro National Park 4/16/03 3:23 PM Art Explosion Art Explosion Thorns protect cacti by preventing animal browsing. Flowers bloom from modified stems of a prickly pear. Many young plants, such as the saguaro, cannot tolerate the intense desert sun. They grow only under nurse plants, which shade them in early life. The seedlings grow in the shade of a mesquite tree or creosote bush. It may take a saguaro 50 years to grow taller than its nurse plant. Some plants live their whole lives in the shade of a nurse plant. Courtesy of Bureau of Land Management The desert tortoise spends the hottest part of the day in its burrow and emerges in the early morning or late afternoon to feed on grasses and seeds. Courtesy of Anne Marie Gearhart A saguaro grows near creosote and mesquite trees that may have served as nurse trees for the young cactus. During the day, the desert seems quiet, except for the occasional bird or the deafening buzz of cicadas. A closer look might reveal black-tailed jackrabbits or a collared peccary resting in the shade of a saguaro. Few animals file:///Ecoscenario/saguaro/content.html Page 6 of 12
Ecoscenario: Saguaro National Park 4/16/03 3:23 PM venture out duing the heat of the day. Reptiles, such as the western diamondback rattlesnake, can be found sunning in the morning, but they will retreat to shade during the heat of the day. Red-tailed hawks glide on hot thermal wind currents, and roadrunners dart across open spaces, each searching for food. As night approaches and temperatures cool, the desert becomes alive. At dusk or dawn you might see a coyote. Cactus flowers open. Mexican long-tongued bats and white-lined sphinx moths emerge, seeking nectar and fruit. Even the desert floor appears alive as scorpions and other insects come out of their hiding places in search of water and food. After a summer rain, thousands of black and green-striped hornwoms (sphinx moth larvae) begin a mass migration across the desert floor. Desert tortoises escape intense daytime heat by estivating, which is similar to hibernating, in burrows. Estivating animals burrow underground and appear to be asleep or dead. Animals may also have adaptations that help them cope with the lack of water. Desert tortoises, kangaroo rats, and other desert animals can go a long time without drinking water. They get all the water they need from the plant stems or seeds that they eat. Art Explosion Art Explosion Summer rains trigger a mass migration of hornworms. Scorpions seek dark, cool spaces during the day. During the late summer, Saguaro National Park gets more rain than can seep quickly into the ground. The water creates temporary rivers in the usually dry washes. Diversity of plants and animals along washes is particularly high. Plants that live for only a few weeks may have seeds that lie dormant for years, waiting for just the right environmental conditions. When the rain comes, these seeds sprout and grow quickly into fields of wildflowers, such as desert paintbrush, firewheel, and morning glory. They complete their life cycle before the moisture disappears and the temperature gets too hot. These flowers are called ephemeral because their blooming season is so short. Yellow creosote flowers and flame-orange ocotillo flowers brighten the desert and give it a distinctive smell for a few brief weeks following a good soaking. file:///Ecoscenario/saguaro/content.html Page 7 of 12
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Ecoscenarios Combined - FOSSweb

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