On a grand Sunday morning, ten members of the TCSS (Tucson Cactus & Succulent Society) met up in the badlands if Marana. If you are not sharp on Southern Arizona geography, in the 1990;s, Marana (a very small farming town) annexed a huge slice of unincorporated Tucson on the northwest side of town. I am not sure how a small farming town was able to annex a huge urban area with a greater population, but they did.

This part of town is really unknown to me. It was once ranchland and mobile homes years ago. Now I saw subdivision after subdivision going up and the skeletonal frames of houses everywhere.

We had two small lots to rescue. This was a limited rescue. The developer was actually keeping the native plants and just building the home. So, we only had to rescue along the driveway and the house on two separate lots.

The saguaro (Canegiea gigantea) that I chose to rescue was in the shade of a seven foot cholla. It was very tricky to shovel out. I just had to avoid damaging the tap root. I dug it up and marked the south side as where I tied it with wire. The southern exposure is the side that gets the greatest amount of sun, so when I replant it, I can avoid sunburning the cactus. Yes, plants can get sunburn out here.

I rescued a few Arizona Fishhooks (Mammillaria microcarpa), a few chollas, some Santa Rita Prickly Pear (Opuntia chlorotica var. santa-rita) and one hedgehog. I am not quite sure what subspecies they were, but I was enjoying myself too much to care. There is something primal and oddly rewarding about working the soil to me these days.

Some of the other folks rescued other saguaros and some of the aforementioned cactus. There was a large Compass Barrel Cactus that was rescued. Someone had the experience and forethought to bring a hand truck to move it. I would not care to venture its weight, but I sure would not want to lug that even a few feet.

I found a Queen of the Night cactus (Peniocereus Greggii) on the second lot. This is a fairly hard to find cactus even here in Southern Arizona. This cactus resembles a dead stick more than cactus. The plant loves the shade of large trees and it blends itself well with the tree. I thought it was a small ocotillo when I entered the lot. The Queen of the Night has a tuber root and two tap roots. I was told that I had to dig away from the plant to avoid striking the tuber. I had no idea that the tuber would be so large. To get it uprooted, I had to dig with my hands around the tuber. A damaged tuber just might kill the plant. One can imagine my shock to dig out three feet of sand by hand before the tap roots came out. I had to ask for help carrying it. I had the tuber, but was worried about the stalks breaking off.

Since this was the only Queen of the Night on the rescue, we had a lottery to determine who would take it home. I lost, but was happy just with the experience of getting it out and saving it from a bulldozer. Not many folks can say that they have rescued one. As a bonus, this one was impressively large. Not one of us had an idea as to its age. America's greatest botanists have all their attention focused on eradicating crab grass it seems.

Because I spent all my time at the second lot on the Queen of the Night, I have no idea how many cactus were actually rescued. Everyone seemed pleased though, so that was a good thing. I did get a nice three foot saguaro out of it. The TCSS received all of the smaller cactus that I had dug. The TCSS holds sales frequently to find homes for these. I have a small yard myself and can't plant every cactus that I dig up.

Just for the public's information: The Arizona Department of Agriculture has a new tag for saguaros. This is a sticker that folds over on itself. (See photo above)

If you are not buying from a nursery or greenhouse, please make sure that the saguaro is legal. Don’t support the cactus rustlers!

-This essay was contributed by Joel Smith in Tucson, a desert and cactus advocate in Tucson, Arizona. He has also written articles about Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the Pistol Hill desert area in Tucson and Arizona water issues. His web site is www.BajaArizona.com.