We were in the middle of Baja California, one of the 31 states of Mexico searching for the cardón, the largest cactus in the world. They can grow up to 70 feet high and weigh 25 tons. They can store up to a ton of water and live over 300 years. Soon we began seeing the monsters, growing in forests called "cardonales. The cardón depends of migrating bats to pollinate its flowers in spring. When they pass back through in the fall, the golf ball sized fruits have fallen to the ground and split open, providing the bats and birds sustenance even as they distribute the ingested seeds through the area. Why not add a flash card for cardón?
It is amazing being in a desert climate. At first the landscape looks desolate and hostile but on closer inspection you can discover all sorts of life.
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