Organ Pipe Cactus

   In southwestern Arizona, on the border with Mexico, is one of my favorite places on earth. It is Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The park was named for the organ pipe cactus,
which mostly grows in Mexico, but ventures into Arizona in a limited area. The great bulk of the organ pipe cacti grow within the boundaries of this national park, but they do continue north to the area around Ajo, a town that is 40 miles from the border and about a dozen miles from the national monument's northern boundary.  For decades the organ pipe cacti were constricted to this area, north of the international border, but, lately they have been expanding their range. They also grow on the slopes of the Slate Mountains, on the
Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, which borders the national monument on the east; there is a "loner" or isolated specimen, growing in the Sand Tank Mountains in the newly christened
Sonoran Desert National Monument, a park that is bisected by Interstate 8; there is a solitary individual growing on a bajada slope in Picacho Peak State Park, near Eloy, between Tucson and Phoenix and one growing on Desert Peak, near Marana, which is a northern suburb of Tucson. These organ pipe specimens have somehow managed to grow and thrive even though they are well removed from their traditional range and they are located at least 40 miles or more from the nearest organ pipe. The seeds from which they sprouted most likely were deposited by a bird dropping or blown about by the wind and managed to take root. In addition, there are other organ pipes that were planted and they are doing quite well in their new location, such as one next to the Desert Laboratory atop Tumamoc Hill on the west side of Tucson, those that are in the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and those that are in
Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park near Superior.
  The fact that they have expanded beyond their traditional range offers hope that the organ pipe cactus will occupy a much bigger range in the future, though I doubt it will ever become as numerous as the more familiar saguaro.
  Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a place that I daydream about and it is a place I visited as much as possible when I lived in Arizona, but it is a very isolated place that requires preparation if you want to visit. It is accessible by a good paved highway, but services are very limited in the immediate area and, even in the nearby town of Ajo, which is the economic center for a wide area, services still are not very plentiful.