Cousins Tanisha Tucker Lohse and Maria Francisco set off from their desert camp around dawn on most early summer days, in ...

Cousins Tanisha Tucker Lohse and Maria Francisco set off from their desert camp around dawn on most early summer days, in ...

The saguaro cactus is the iconic plant of the Arizona borderlands, and in June and early July, its fruit ripens. For the ...

Over the last five years, researchers have found that the death rate for saguaros in the Phoenix area jumped from 1% to 2% ...

The Saguaro Way of Life. An hour west, another group is keeping a watchful eye on the saguaro. The Tohono O’odham, or Desert People, have lived in southern Arizona for more than 5,000 years. The ...

The sacred ritual of collecting fruit from towering cactuses is enjoying a renaissance as many seek to protect their ...

Tanisha Tucker Lohse, of the Tohono O'odham nation, picks a ripe saguaro cactus fruit during a harvest day in Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz., on Monday, June 23, 2025.

The saguaro cactus is the iconic plant of the Arizona borderlands, and in June and early July, its fruit ripens. For the ...

The saguaro cactus is the iconic plant of the Arizona borderlands, and in June and early July, its fruit ripens. For the Tohono O'odham Nation, harvest time for the 'bahidaj,' or saguaro fruit, is ...