In the summer months, birds, bats, mammals, and insects consume saguaro fruit under the shade of viable nurse plants, ...

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

"Saguaro" is the most common version, followed by "sahuaro." Rarer versions include the perhaps unintentionally amusing "suhara cactus” found on some vintage postcards.

Tanisha Tucker Lohse, right, and Maria Francisco, both of the Tohono Oʼodham nation, harvest fruit from a saguaro cactus in Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz., on Monday, June 23, 2025.

Editor's note: This story was originally published in August 2019. A 10-foot-tall, stainless steel saguaro cactus, born in Tucson, went to its forever home this summer, at the bottom of the Gulf ...