Saguaro flowers

This is the saguaro arm I've been following in previous posts now starting to bloom. Each night a few of the buds will open into 3 inch diameter flowers to be pollinated by the three Bs: Bats, Birds, and Bees. Later in the day the flower will close forever and begin to create what will be a 3 inch oval red fruit.

The picture below is this same arm, two weeks ago, showing the flower buds at different stages of development. Saguaros bloom for a few weeks, but only a few percent of the buds bloom on any given day (there can still be a LOT of blooming flowers, but each day its a completely new set of buds which have bloomed). Pretty neat planet we share!