45 strange forest 



in a storm, and wanton horsemen have been known to de 

 stroy in a few moments a centmy of slow hving with a 

 tug upon a lasso. 



Yet there is method in the saguaro's seeming madness. 

 It does not go deep for water because where it grows 

 there usually isn't any. In fact its preferred areas are 

 those buried under the loose rocky detritus of disinte- 

 grating mountains and therefore the very ones which are 

 the despair of the well digger. But the saguaro has learned 

 that when the occasional torrential rains do come, the 

 water does not run off as quickly as it does on the hard- 

 backed flats because it sinks a few inches into the rocky 

 soil. And while the saguaro was learning that, it was also 

 learning how to take advantage of the fact. It sends out 

 a network of lateral roots only eight to twenty inches be- 

 low the surface but as much as ninety feet in length, so 

 that the great trunk rises from the center of a sort of huge 

 disk just below the surface. 



Thanks to this arrangement it is ready to take full ad- 

 vantage of the occasional periods when these roots are 

 bathed in water. Moreover the trunk is longitudinally 

 accordion-pleated and as moisture is absorbed the pleats 

 unfold. As much as a ton may be absorbed after a single 

 downpour and the supply, carefully hoarded, can last if 

 necessary for a full year. 



In fact the saguaro cannot live where rains are frequent 

 because, for one thing, it may take up so much water as 

 to burst itself open. Even when growing under ideal con- 

 ditions, it may have a moisture content of from seventy- 

 five to ninety-five percent of its green weight. In a saguaro 

 forest the large plants are usually fifteen or twenty feet 

 apart, because each needs a considerable area from which 



