More saguaros

I have been upgrading my saguaros to a more realistic appearance:

The plant closest to the camera is a foreground model, somewhat larger in proportion than the more distant plants on the mountainside.

These are simple to construct from acrylic clay (the kind you bake in the oven). The simplicity is a bit deceptive, as the trick is in getting the appearance and texture right, following the proportions of typical plants.

Saguaros are only found in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona and northern Mexico. They are perhaps the most distinctive cactus species in the world, and vary greatly in size, shape, number of arms, etc. I hope to complete more foreground models in the next week and will post results.

And yucca plants, too!

How did you do the yucca?  The whole scene makes me feel hot just to see it - maybe a beer or two at the cantina will help . . .

Those are great looking

Those are great looking saguaros Verne, and this is coming from someone who has some in his front yard to compare them to. I am in the planning stage of a layout set in Mexico, although I am making my layout set on an island in the Baja area, so saguaros would be out of place. Seeing them done so well makes me want to bend geographical reality a bit perhaps, but I seriously doubt I could do such a good job. The random arms, wren nest boots and boot around the base is spot on, they look so much better than your typical Wyle E. Coyote version saguaros you see in models or movies- etc. Well done.

                           James

Our front yard, taken a week or so ago before the yellow wild carrots gave up the ghost and turned brown. These saguaros haven't armed out yet, we have a few biggies out back that have though. For those unfamiliar with cactus, the smaller ones leaning south "are compass cactus pilgrim".

Great job on the Cacti and the Yucca plants!

Verne,

I remember when I lived out in Phoenix as a kid.  My mother bought a Volkswagen Square Back.  She would drive it across the desert chasing roadrunners.  One of the things you learn quickly about living in the desert is you don't go jumping over sand mounds without first completely encircling the mound.  Usually there was a big hole on the other side with someone's wreck in the hole.

Now that I think about it you are missing two more desert plants.  There was a tree we kids called a Cat Claw.  It was thorny tree that you wanted to stay away from or it would make you look like you had been in a fight with a cat.  I remember having a run in with Jumping Cacti out at Thunderbird Peak.  It was a painful experience!  I swear I just walked by it.  I didn't touch it.

Maybe you could create a Roadrunner bird for your layout?  I remember those things along the roads.

Den

Additional comments ...

While not as abundant, the Saguaro (pronounced ")  also occur in Imperial County, in southeast California where their distribution was contiguous prior to the incision of the Lower Colorado  River Valley. Also, the Sonoran Desert is divided into several sub-regions. In southern Arizona, it is divided primarily by elevation into the Lower and Upper Sonoran. The Saguaro are not native to the latter region but occur there as transplanted ornamental specimens. 

Dennis mentioned "Cat Claw" which is a species of Acacia, and Jumping Cacti, a species of Cholla.

Thanks

Thanks for your comments...I owe a tip of my sombrero to Travis Hartschung, a fellow O scale modeler who recently gave me tips on making my saguaros more realistic.

Rog.38, that plant with a stalk is an agave, similar to yucca. It was made from a dried plant part as the base, with a carved wood dowel stalk coated with scenic flower foam on the end.

Stoker, what a nice front yard! Yes, the blooms are all but gone in the desert now, save for the saguaros themselves. Your layout plans sound interesting, why not throw in some saguaros anyway? I, for one, aren't going to nitpick that!

Den, thanks for your comment. I have a roadrunner that is in the paint shop, primed and ready for painting. There is a jackalope, mountain lion, young bear and Harris hawk on the layout, so the critter population is gradually increasing.

I didn't think cats claw is native to the Sonoran, I will have to check. Jumping cactus (cholla) are nasty...I had a similar run in with them as a kid. The needles actually have a tiny hook in them, causing the cluster of needles to separate from the plant and stay with you instead! It only takes a brush of contact, and the hook is set! I plan to model them, haven't gotten around to them yet.

Other typical plants of the Sonora include:

Palo verde (Spanish for green wood), the state tree of Arizona.

Ocotillo (oh-ko-ti-yo, not a cactus, but interesting all the same).

Prickly-pear.

Senite cacti.

Agave

Soap tree yucca and jojoba plants.

There are many other varieties I have yet to model...there's no desert with more diverse flora and fauna than the Sonoran!

Those look good. Well done.

... especially like the Ocotillo. The lush growth and crimson flowers indicate the area has had recent rainfall. A wicked plant to transplant.

Delbert

...

While there's a ton of catclaw [Arizona Acacia], the mesquite is just about the most ubiquitous tree we have out here, and it can grow to rather enormous proportions with the right amount of water.  There too is the palo verde, with it's distinctively green trunk.  Find water and you'll find the cottonwood,

Ocotillo remain a peculiar plant, whereas they leaf and flower a couple times a year.

Creosote - where would we be without creosote!!  The stuff grows in huge forests where nothing else will, right out on the flats up to 3 and 4 feet tall or so.  It's most interesting in that this evergreen is one of the few plants in the world that responds to temperature - it has one setting at a high temperature, allowing it to flourish when it is hot, and then when it gets cold, the plant responds by switching to this lower setting.  So whereas a deciduous tree loses it's leaves, the creosote switches over and keeps on living like it did before.

There's a number of cacti species - everything from the common prickly pear [and there's a dozen or so species there!] to the barrel cactus to the common cholla, given this one also has a number of varieties...There's the organ pipe as well...more common towards the border.

So many...

The honey off catclaw is about as "unflavor" as you can get, it has very very little at all..  Mesquite has a much deeper, darker flavor, while horehound will certainly get your attention, darker and deeper with an almost tarty tingle to it! 

Fri, 2013-05-03 22:57 — La