13 SAGUARO. These magnificent giants are indicator plants of the Sonoran Desert. Saguaros produce a beautiful white blossom which has been designated the Arizona State Flower. Its bright red fruit is edible.
Saguaros grow as high as 50 feet and more, and may live as long as 200 years. After a good rain, large saguaros may weigh several tons. Their roots are shallow—not more than three feet deep—which allows rapid absorption of ground-surface moisture. The pleated skin expands, accordion-like, as the inner pulp swells with absorbed water.
The Gila woodpecker is responsible for many of the holes you see riddling mature saguaros; the bird will excavate a half-dozen or more potential nests every year. Other birds use the woodpecker holes, particularly the elf owl, a six-inch midget which can live only where the saguaro and the woodpecker provide it with a home.
Saguaro blossoms.
The Annex.
14 THE ANNEX. Look above you, at the base of the cliff; do you see a five-foot manmade wall? Once there was a Salado village in the shallow recess above; it was contemporary with the Lower Ruin just around the corner and probably housed its population overflow. There were about a dozen rooms in the Annex, traceable from tiny fragments of walls and plaster room outlines. Because the recess is so shallow and offers little shelter, the Annex was destroyed by weather long ago. What you see from the trail here is all there is to see.
15 TEDDYBEAR CHOLLA. Imagine the misery this cactus gave the scantily-clad Salados as they moved about gathering wild food and hunting deer and other creatures. The teddybear’s joints break off very easily and stick to a victim at the slightest contact, even seeming to jump at a victim, hence its other name, “jumping cactus.” Cholla spines penetrate deeply and are very painful to remove; remember—people who stay on the trail stay out of the way of the cholla. The noisy cactus wren somehow makes use of the teddybear as a nesting site, and the woodrat drags cholla joints home with which to barricade his burrow.
16 CEMENTED ROCK. This rock broke away from the cliff above and rolled here. The diagram explains the geology; broken, faulted Dripping Spring Formation rocks, here mostly quartzites, were overlain by a layer of limestone; water percolating through the limestone dissolved materials which then seeped down through the fragmented rocks and, drying, cemented the broken bits together, as in the boulder here.