Desert Botanical Gardens

Last Friday on the 12^th of April, the S-STEM took a little field trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens. It was an amazing day! The weather was great, the company exceptional and we had the opportunity to walk the gardens with not one but two incredibly knowledgeable escorts; our own Matt (a DBG veteran), Josh, Dijana and Dr. Schampel.

Our tour around the gardens exposed us to the many plants of the Sonoran Desert. If you have been reading my blog you know that the plants of the lower Sonoran are particularly interesting to me as they are the focus of my allelopathy project. However, I must confess that my favorite portion of the day was the time we spent with the butterflies! Yes, hundreds of living butterflies! It was such a magical experience to have these beautiful creatures flying around our heads and landing on our arms – it felt very Disney Princess!

Keeping in the Disney mindset, for every princess there is a nemesis. And, we learned the DBG and the Sonoran Desert have an insidious enemy, one that hundreds of volunteers combat on a regular basis - the enemy is buffelgrass. A native of South Africa, buffelgrass was brought to the US in the 1940’s to combat the ravages of the Dustbowl. At the time it was a godsend, it held the ground together and provided food for cattle.  Unfortunately, good has turned to bad. With its ability to thrive on very little water, easy germination and a thick highly developed root system this highly invasive weed threatens the ecology of the Sonoran Desert including (my favorite) the mighty saguaro cactus. The DBG organizes volunteers to pull buffelgrass both on the DBG grounds and along Galvin Parkway. I would encourage all of us to put in some time on this worthy project, just make sure you bring your sunscreen!

Dr. Schampel also asked us to blog about our favorite plant, and its most prominent adaptations to desert living.  My favorite, as you already know, is the saguaro cactus. As a native Arizonan the saguaro has always intrigued and delighted me. But, my admiration of this mighty cactus has grown even more this semester. One of the reasons for my growing respect is the saguaro is the only seed that I am working with in my allelopathy project that germinates and does NOT mold! Yes, I adore my little saguaro seedlings and in 20, or so, years I invite you all to come to my house and see how they have grown.

By then, because of the exceptional care they will have been given by me, they may reach as much as eight feet in height. Their wild cousins of the same age might have only reached one foot in height in the same amount of time. But, even in the wild the saguaro can live two hundred years and grow to heights of 50 feet. With a smooth almost waxy skin they are covered in two inch spines, both of these adaptations allow very little precious moisture to escape. Water collection and storage is vital for the saguaro. As such they have developed a broad shallow root system that allows for maximum water collection as well as a pleated rib system that allows the saguaro to expand as it absorbs water. In this manner the saguaro can store as much as a ton of water and then wait patiently for the next rain.