Cactus

 

 

This is the usual large distinctive cactus we see here, the saguaro.

 

This cactus is different.

 

This looks like an organ pipe cactus.  It’s similar to a saguaro in that it sucks up water during wet seasons and expands to save it inside for the dry season.  It closes the pores on its surface during the day to eliminate transpiration during the heat and conserve water.  It blooms only at night.

 

I’m a little skeptical about what this cactus is for sure, because in the U.S., organ pipes only grow naturally inside the Organ Pipe National Monument right on the southern border of Arizona.  It also grows in Mexico.  This one is growing in a yard where we are in the Phoenix area.  We’re a little far north, out of the cactus’s natural range.  They can’t tolerate a freeze.  Maybe this is a landscaping version of an organ pipe cactus that can tolerate slightly colder winter weather, I don’t know.