Bajada Loop, Saguaro National Park, Arizona

What surprised me during my first visit to the Sonoran desert in southern Arizona was how green it was compared to the Mojave desert in southern California.

Here on the left are the iconic saguaro cacti, found only in the Sonoran desert. Most of these are relatively mature saguaros with arms, although there is short, armless younger saguaro in the foreground.

An ocotillo (pronounced o-kuh-TEE-yo) dominates the center with its slender, whiplike, thorny branches. Whenever it rains enough, the ocotillos grow small leaves and red flowers, both of which then drop off as the memory of that rain fades. An ocotillo can go through several of these deciduous cycles during a year, depending on rain patterns.

Smaller cacti in this image include prickly pear with their flat round, thorny pads and buckthorn cholla (pronounced CHOY-yuh) with their cylindical thorny segments.

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Make:	Canon
Model:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Exposure:	0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture:	f/11.0
ISO Speed:	100
Focal Length:	35 mm
Lens:	EF24-105mm f/4L IS II USM