Saguaro Cactus Fruit

The 3-inch, oval, green fruit ripens just before the fall rainy season, splitting open to reveal the bright-red, pulpy flesh which all desert creatures seem to relish. This fruit was an especially important food source to Native Americans of the region who used the flesh, seeds and juice. Seeds from the Saguaro fruit are prolific -- as many as 4,000 to a single fruit -- probably the largest number per flower of any desert cactus.

While the Whitewing Dove (whose northern range coincides with range of the Saguaro) is one of its primary pollinators, it is the Gila Woodpecker and the Gilded Flicker who make their home in the Saguaro Cactus by chiseling out small holes in the trunk.
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