SAGUARO SILLINESS
The giant Saguaros indigenous to the Sonoran Desert have been slowly mutating in some sections of Southern Arizona, according to cactus expert Sam Stickerino. He has been studying a phenomenon seen only in certain areas south of Tucson, where a number of Saguaros have been slowly evolving into a new species, known locally as the Sagolfo Cactus.
The strange cactus has been spotted most frequently in Quail Creek, a golf community east of Green Valley that is home to 27 holes of golf, thousands of cactus plants, and a billion golf carts. The inset shows a pair of Sagolfos discovered in a Quail Creek resident's yard this week. "Nobody knows for sure what causes the cactus to mutate," Stickerino said, "but most researchers lean toward a combination of thousands of golf balls flying around each day plus the constant whine of all those golf carts darting all over the place." Whatever the cause, these mutant Sagolfos have cropped up in several areas recently, and experts like Stickerino are becoming concerned that we might be polluting the Sonoran Desert flora with our housing developments and golf courses.
"As more people move into the area we expect to see more mutations of this sort," Stickerino said. "We have already seen several instances of the May Polecotillo, and I'm on my way to Tubac now to check out a reported sighting of a line of Luminariagaves". |