On Sunday I attended my first meeting as a member of the Central Arizona Cactus and Succulent Society.  The longer I live in Arizona, the more fascinated I become with cacti.  The meeting included a lecture about rare cacti in a particular area of Mexico, and the group in attendance was riveted to the screen.  Seeing pictures of these men on the ground photographing tiny cacti that live in dried-up cracks in a mud flat was awe inspiring.  They climbed mountains and cliffs to get the perfect picture.  They even found new species on that trip. While I don’t plan on going to Mexico any time soon, it did spur me to get out more in the southwest and see what I can find.  I thought it was a great meeting, and I even picked up 3 free little plant babies at the meeting so a good day for me.

Inspired by the meeting, I decided this week to read a book about cacti – actually a single type of cactus, the saguaro.  I picked up my copy of The Saguaro Cactus – A Natural History (by David Yetman et al) at the Phoenix location of Changing Hands Bookstore, a local, independent bookstore (also a location in Tempe).  It is a great bookstore to find books about the southwest, and each of the two locations are different.  The Phoenix location has the First Draft bar, and the Tempe location is filled with unique gift items.  I recommend visiting both locations. 

As I discussed in this week’s Cactus Corner, the saguaro is so unique and interesting that I cannot get enough information about it.  This book has beautiful color photographs, but it definitely isn’t a coffee table book.  This paperback digs into the research relating to the anatomy and physiology of the plant, as well as the genomics and ecology of the saguaro.  So being the general nerd that I am, and having studied and taught human physiology, I cannot wait to dig into some plant physiology.  I am sure there will be many pieces of knowledge from this book shared in future Cactus Corner posts. 

Feel free to share what you are reading this week in the comments section!  Happy reading!