Life and Death of a Saguaro

For eleven years, my husband and I lived in a sprawling brick house on an acre of beautiful desert in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, Arizona. Many of my blog posts here have been about things I observed and studied from my office, back porch, and front porch. One of my favorite views, from the back of the house, was of a beautiful large saguaro that was probably 150 - 200 years old (they can live as long as three centuries!). Here are some of my favorite photos of that saguaro over the years.

The saguaro in its prime

Whitewing dove at dawn

Monsoon

Snow

Once saguaros have grown to a large size they are safe from most dangers except those posed by weather--severe freezes, severe rain and wind events, and lightning. It was lightning that felled our beautiful giant, a few months after we downsized and moved out of the house. 

It took about a month for it to deteriorate to this point

RIP, beautiful saguaro. Let's remember it on a glorious sunset evening.