National Geographic Magazine, January 1924 From the article "Fantastic Plants of Our Western Deserts"
Cactus and Succulent Society of America, 1929
Crested Saguaro on Journal Front page Cactus and Succulent Society of America, Vol. 1, No. 1, July 1929
Postcard, circa 1930s Captioned "TWO SPECIES OF GIANT CACTUS" but actually non-crested and crested specimens of the same species
Saguaro National Monument, 1941 (photo by Ansel Adams) Photo commissioned by the National Park Service for a never-installed photo mural in the Department of the Interior Building in Washington DC.
Saguaro National Monument, 1941 (photo by Ansel Adams) Photo commissioned by the National Park Service for a never-installed photo mural in the Department of the Interior Building in Washington DC.
Arizona Highways, October 1950 (photo by Josef Muench) From the article In The Land of The Desert Giants by Joyce Rockwell Muench: "While not many diseases or pests attack the Saguaro, an injury to the circular cell group at the apex sometimes produces the crested or 'cristate' forms. Weird and interesting, they are actually a sort of cancerous growth where the cell grows too rapidly and may be caused by bacteria or perhaps the stab of a bird's bill."
