Some sad news came out of the Tonto National Forest this week. Over the weekend, someone chopped up and shot at a dozen saguaros near Four Peaks, along with barrel cacti, hedgehog cacti, prickly pear and cholla. Some of the saguaros were more than 50 years old. The site was a restoration area where volunteers with the nonprofit Natural Restorations had planted saguaros in 2020 and 2024 to help the desert recover from the 2020 Bush Fire (AZFamily, Nov. 3, 2026).
Stories like this are hard to explain to kids. But they also open a door to a great question: why is a saguaro such a big deal? The answer is pure plant science, and it is a lesson Arizona kids can see in their own neighborhoods every day.
Saguaros grow incredibly slowly. According to the National Park Service, a saguaro may grow only a few inches in its first ten years, usually does not grow its first arm until it is somewhere around 60 to 75 years old, and can live 150 years or more (National Park Service, Saguaro National Park). A cactus lost this week may have been growing since before many of today's parents were born. Helping kids understand that is one of the best ways to raise a generation that protects the desert.
How desert plants store water
A saguaro is basically a living water tank. Its pleats work like an accordion: after a heavy rain they expand so the plant can soak up as much water as its shallow, spreading roots can collect, and during dry spells they shrink as the plant uses that water. A big saguaro can weigh around 80 pounds for every foot of trunk, mostly because of the water inside (NPS).
Other succulents use the same strategy on a smaller scale. Thick, fleshy leaves and stems hold water, and a waxy outer coating slows down how fast it escapes. Many succulents also keep their pores closed during the hot day and open them at night, when it is cooler and less water is lost.
What your kids will learn
Grades K-5
- The parts of a plant: roots, trunk or stem, branches and leaves
- How thick, fleshy leaves help a succulent store water
- Why desert plants grow slowly and why we leave wild plants alone
- Weighing, measuring and recording changes in a science journal
Grades 6-12
- Plant adaptations to dry environments, and why overwatering harms succulents
- Transpiration and water loss, and the role of a waxy cuticle
- Variegation: why white leaf areas have little chlorophyll and what that means for photosynthesis
- Calculating percent change and graphing data over several days
This week's activity: the thin leaf vs. thick leaf water challenge
This experiment shows, with real numbers, why succulents can survive an Arizona summer. You need a kitchen scale that reads in grams, a plate, and two kinds of leaves.
- Gather your leaves. Use one thin leaf from the kitchen, like spinach or lettuce, and one thick leaf from a succulent houseplant you already own, such as a jade or aloe. Never take leaves, pads or arms from wild desert plants. In Arizona, removing native plants requires the landowner's written permission and a permit from the Arizona Department of Agriculture, and they are slow to grow back.
- Make a prediction. Which leaf will lose more of its weight in five days? Have each child write down a guess and a reason.
- Weigh and record. Weigh each leaf and write the starting weight in grams.
- Set them out. Place both leaves side by side on a plate in a bright indoor window, out of reach of pets.
- Weigh every day. Same time each day, for five days. Record each weight and add a quick sketch of how each leaf looks.
- Do the math. Younger kids can compare which leaf shrank more. Older kids can calculate percent of weight lost each day (starting weight minus today's weight, divided by starting weight, times 100) and graph both leaves.
- Bonus model. Fold a sheet of paper back and forth like a fan, then roll it into a tube. Gently squeeze and release it to see how saguaro pleats let the plant swell and shrink.
After the challenge, give your kids a succulent of their own to care for. The Variegated Dwarf Jade Bonsai Succulent Science Kit includes a live variegated dwarf baby jade bonsai with green-and-white leaves, plus growing and care information. It is an easy first tree: happy in low light and low care, with watering about twice a week. The kit comes with curriculum and worksheets for Grades K-5 or 6-12, emailed after purchase, covering how fleshy leaves store water, how succulents are adapted to dry places, variegation and photosynthesis, how bonsai growers shape a tree, and long-term growth tracking.
It is a small way to bring the same science that keeps a saguaro alive right onto your kitchen table, and to give kids a plant they are responsible for protecting.
Join the growing community
Every kit comes with an invitation to Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands, our Facebook group where kids and parents can get support with anything they need. Share your leaf-weight graph, a photo of your jade, or your paper saguaro model.
Arizona families in the group are growing right alongside young scientists in West Virginia and Arkansas. When a Tucson kid's succulent leaf barely loses weight while an Arkansas kid's spinach leaf shrivels in two days, everyone learns something about why plants look so different from one state to the next.
Grow a desert survivor at home
Saguaros take a lifetime to grow, and they depend on all of us to leave them standing. A little jade on the windowsill is a great place for Arizona kids to start learning why.
- Variegated Dwarf Jade Bonsai Succulent Science Kit: $149.99, with curriculum and worksheets for Grades K-5 or 6-12
