Some saguaros can produce 200 bulbs of fruit a year. Saguaros can produce as many as 40 million seeds in a lifetime. The fruit is usually sweet, almost sugary, depending on ripeness. The numerous small seeds make the pulp crunchy. Saguaros often have holes in them.
Newcomers sometimes think that the cactus has been vandalized with gunshots.
Actually, birds are responsible. Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers carve out nesting sites in saguaros. Then birds such as owls, starlings and sparrows use the abandoned woodpecker nests the following year. Its ribs, called pleats, expand and contract according to the availability of water. Wildlife won't harm it if it is healthy and mature.