Cactus flowers have a striking range in size—they can be smaller than a grain of rice or longer than a school ruler. Such variation points to how God designed living things with room to adapt while also placing limits on what they can become.

A recent Biology Letters study reports that cactus groups with faster-changing flowers tend to form new species faster.¹ Jamie Thompson and Chris Venditti studied flower length in more than 750 cactus species. Flower size ranged from 2 millimeters to 37 centimeters.¹ That is a 185-fold difference. But flower size itself was not the strongest link to species formation. The University of Reading explained that the key was actually how quickly the flower changed.²

While the authors of the study attribute these changes to evolution, e.g., “the rate of flower-length evolution is a strongly positive predictor [of speciation],” the research instead shows variation in a system that already exists and was designed to diversify.¹ Even though the scientists write that “these findings provide insights into the evolutionary origins of plant biodiversity,” it does not show how cactus flowers began or explain the origin of other features already present in the cactus family, like seeds, spines, waxy surfaces that help reduce water loss, water-storing stems, or CAM photosynthesis (a process involving gas-exchange pathways that helps cacti live in dry places).^1,3

This is where one must distinguish biological flexibility from biological limits. Cacti can differ in flower length, stem shape, growth form, and habitat. That flexibility helps them live in many settings. But cacti remain cacti. Their main systems still work as cactus systems. From a creation view, this is not surprising. God designed living things with the ability to fill the earth’s many environments.

Although the study depends on a cactus evolutionary family tree and statistical models of change, the work isn’t rendered useless. Models can reveal patterns. But a model can only answer questions within its own starting assumptions. CactEcoDB, the large database behind this work, gathers cactus traits, locations, environments, and family tree data for over 1,000 cactus species.³ These data show patterns of cactus diversity, not that the cactus design was tinkered into existence without the Designer.

An engineering perspective allows us to recognize that living things use control systems. They sense conditions, process information, regulate growth, and produce fitting responses.⁴ Cactus flower change is but one example of a built-in capacity working within an already-designed system. It is not evidence that unguided processes can build the system itself.

The cactus study is noteworthy because it “challenges a long-standing expectation that the evolution of specialized flowers shapes the rise of plant biodiversity.”¹ Moreover, it shows that cacti are not crude desert survivors—they are flexible, complex, and well-fitted to harsh places, able to self-adjust according to their needs. Their differences point to built-in potential, and their core features point to their limitations. Together, those facts are consistent with the workmanship of the Creator.

References

1. Thompson, J. B. and C. Venditti. 2026. Faster Speciating Cacti Have Faster Evolving Flowers. Biology Letters. 22 (3), article 20250834.
2. The Cactus on Your Desk Is an Evolution Speed Machine. University of Reading news release. Posted on reading.ac.uk March 18, 2026.
3. Thompson, J. B. et al. 2026. CactEcoDB: Trait, Spatial, Environmental, Phylogenetic and Diversification Data for the Cactus Family. Scientific Data. 13, article 623.
4. Guliuzza, R. J. 2019. Biological Networks Feature Finest Engineering Principles. Acts & Facts. 48 (1): 17–19.

* Dr. Corrado earned a Ph.D. in systems engineering from Colorado State University and a Th.M. from Liberty University. He is a freelance contributor to ICR’s Creation Science Update, works in the nuclear industry, and is a Captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve.