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Mountain Vista students at the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society.
(Tucson) Brianna Gallego, Madison Nevitt, and Mia Villa were invited to the monthly board meeting of the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society (TCSS) to present their SARSEF project “Super Pie”.
This project involved using desert ingredients: prickly pear cactus fruit, barrel cactus fruit, cholla fruit, hackberries, and manzanita berries to prepare, cook, and provide taste testing at our school. Their pie required 4 test trials before it was a delicious, nutritious, and organic native pie. There was an abundant amount of nutrients in their pie and during the process, they learned so much about our desert environment now and in the past through field trips
to the Arizona Trail, Mission Gardens, and the Old Pueblo Archaeological Society.
Jazlyn Ellis represented the other project “Cactus Transpiration”. She told about how it is important to learn about desert plants so we can learn to adapt to climate change. She explained that desert cactus transpire at night and survive on a CO2 acid that’s formed inside the cactus during the day. These special plants only breath through their stomata at night so they can conserve as much moisture as possible. She was excited to see that the Biosphere2 is performing experiments on transpiration to see if plant transpiration can cool down the heat generated by solar panels (Edible Baja Arizona Magazine).
The students had their first public speaking appearance with 200 members of the TCSS in attendance. They were in some great company with the 2nd place winner and another honorable mention winner. They were excited when the TCSS gave them some cactus and succulent cuttings to take home.
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