How Desert Botanical Garden is Helping Saguaros Under a Hotter ... - Desert Botanical Garden

How Desert Botanical Garden is Helping Saguaros Under a Hotter Climate | Desert Botanical Garden

Meet the next generation of saguaros.

In a small square pot, 100 black seeds are scattered across a sandy bed. Several of them have already sprouted into seedlings. The seedlings are only a few millimeters in size, resembling green jelly beans with a spiky head.

Garden scientists have propagated these seeds from a wild saguaro, that is known to be living in some of the harshest conditions in Arizona and thriving, as part of a larger conservation effort to add genetic diversity to the Garden’s saguaro population. Genetic diversity is key for population to adapt to changing environmental conditions

In 2020, researchers and horticulture staff began collecting seeds from wild saguaro populations. The seeds are collected from saguaro fruits and are stored in large stainless-steel freezers in the Garden’s Ahearn Desert Conservation Laboratory.

The goal is to propagate saguaros that might be better suited to endure sweltering conditions so that over time these cactus can build resiliency to rising temperatures.

In addition, the Garden has two projects focused on saguaros that work in tandem: Saguaro Census and Saguaros Under Stress. The first project is a community science endeavor to record and observe the health of saguaros growing in metro Phoenix. The Garden’s Saguaro Census helps researchers understand the Valley’s saguaro demographics, including plants that have been damaged, height, location and other observations. Saguaros Under Stress project aims to understand how heat stress is affecting urban saguaros at the molecular level. With the help from homeowners who volunteer their saguaros, Garden scientists have collected small samples of stem tissues. Both of these projects are ongoing.

For more details about the Saguaro Census and how you can get involved visit dbg.org/events/the-metro-phoenix-saguaro-census-2023/ or email saguarocensus@dbg.org.