Green Giants

What lives longer than a tortoise, grows taller than a giraffe, and is illegal to bag—dead or alive—in a national park? By Isaac Cobbcan reach 200 years old!

- Isaac Cobb

Consider the cactus. You need only to stand in the shade of the saguaro’s massive limbs for a moment to feel its power . Have patience, and you might see resident wrens and woodpeckers flutter from nests deep inside the stem . But to truly appreciate the saguaro, you have to visit its eponymous national park near Tucson , where swaths of the multiarmed giants seem to guard the desert .

“Saguaro” and “Arizona” may not be quite as synonymous as, say, the California redwood or the Texas bluebonnet—but they should be. After all, the prickly plant, which can live as long as 200 years and reach heights of 60 feet , grows exclusively in the Sonoran Desert.