South of San Felipe
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About 14 kilometers (9 miles) south of San Felipe on the road to Puertecitos in Northern Baja California is a truly magical local attraction, the Valley of the Giants. The giants inhabiting the valley are a forest of impressively huge cardуn cacti (Pachycereus pringlei), commonly known as the elephant cactus or Mexican Giant cactus. Such large stands of the tall columnar, branched cacti are called “cardуnales”. The cardуns have the distinction of being the largest cacti in the world, and the most impressive cacti in the Valley of the Giants preserve tower 70 feet above the classic Baja desert terrain. Large individuals can weigh in at 25 tons and can live over 300 years. The giant cacti’s common name Cardуn arises from the Spanish word “cardo”, meaning “thistle”. Interestingly, the massive spiky cacti inspired Baja California’s first Spanish name of “Isla de Cardуn”, given by Hernando Cortйs when he came to the Baja peninsula in the early 1500’s at the time when he mistakenly thought that Baja was an island. The first word of the cacti’s Latin name “Pachycereus pringlei” comes from “pachy” meaning “thick” and “cereus” meaning “waxy”, while the second word of the Latin name was given in honor of the American botanist, Cyrus Pringle who named the species. The deserts of the Baja California peninsula are the primary habitat of these spiny, gray-green, thick-armed, waxy-skinned giants, and the San Felipe Desert is the northern-most extent of their range. The cardуn prefers soil such as that found in the mouths of arroyos and grows between sea level and up to elevations of about 3000 feet throughout the Baja peninsula deserts, although it is confined to the regions that remain relatively free of frost. While a few forests of cardуn can be found across the Sea of Cortez in mainland Mexico, these primarily Baja California natives should not be confused with the superficially similar but botanically distinct saguaro cactus (carnegiea gigantean) that does not live in Baja, but instead commonly inhabits the more northerly Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The cardуn’s characteristic shape of tall branching columnar arms based on a shorter, thicker trunk is well adapted for the cactus to present more surface area to the cooler early morning and late afternoon sun, while minimizing exposure to the stronger midday sun. The multi-arm structure increases the cacti’s efficiency in collecting the sun’s rays. Since the cardуn has no leaves, it instead uses its skin to perform the vital function of photosynthesis, making it a “cladophyll”. To preserve precious desert water, the cardуn’s stomata open to the cooler air after sunset to take in the carbon dioxide that is needed for its photosynthetic metabolism. About the Author
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