Crested Saguaro, soft pastel on archival board, 20×16″, 2018, by Jean Krueger, copyrighted with all rights reserved
Saguaro, the ubiquitous cactus of the Sonoran desert, mutate from time to time. When they do, they may form an intricately folded fan-like shape at the end of one or more branches. The fan may start to form when the cactus is dozens of years old (saguaros can live a couple hundred years). Other varieties of cactus are able to mutate in this way. To date, there is no explanation for why these plants decide to up and do this…they just do.