Last spring, Phoenix and Tucson residents saw something unusual on saguaros — the majestic cactus suddenly sprouted side blooms.
Photographers loved it, but it worried scientists, who believed the flowers were a response to intense drought.
So, will it happen again this year?
Ben Wilder, director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill within the Arizona Institutes for Resilience at the University of Arizona, can’t answer that. But The Show did speak with him to learn about what might have caused the blooms and what saguaros might teach us about our climate.
