Animals & Plants Fact List

15 Interesting Facts About Cactus

Here are 15 Interesting Cactus facts.

1-5 Cactus Facts

1. 1749 out of 1750 species of cacti are native to only The Americas. – Source

2. In 1982, a man died while vandalizing a saguaro cactus for fun. He shot the cactus repetitively and then went up to poke it to try to get it to fall over. Instead, the 500-pound saguaro arm fell and killed him. – Source

3. Wisconsin has an area with very sandy soil which is able to support a desert-like environment including prickly pear cactus and a few species of lizard. – Source

4. The tallest cactus ever recorded was over 6 stories tall. – Source

5. Saguaro National Park’s cacti have microchip id’s implanted to prevent theft. – Source

6-10 Cactus Facts

6. There is a monument in Dalby, Queensland commemorating a species of moth that eradicated the invasive Prickly Pear cactus that had spread across 15000 square miles of Australia. – Source

7. The Stenocereus eruca, AKA “the Wandering Devil” is a cactus that can move 60 cm a year. It grows horizontally, growing at the top and dying at the bottom, moving like a caterpillar. – Source

8. There is a species of cactus indigenous to Chicago. – Source

9. A Saguaro cactus takes 10 years to grow an inch and 200 years to grow full size. – Source

10. There’s a species of cactus that lives so far north in Canada that it’s north of the southern edge of Alaska. – Source

11-15 Cactus Facts

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11. There is a cactus native to Morocco that is hotter than any chili pepper known to man. – Source

12. Dragonfruits come from a cactus. – Source

13. Cactus spines are actually modified leaves and that photosynthesis is performed by the stalk instead. – Source

14. Cacti have certain acoustic properties, meaning you can literally play the cactus. – Source

15. The organ pipe cactus is usually pollinated by bats. – Source


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  • #11. That plant is a type of spurge, which are similar to but are not cacti. You should always double check your sources.


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