Research
The Team Sniffing Out Endangered Plants
In 2022, Desert Botanical Garden introduced a pair of scientists with paws who are helping researchers with a major conservation project that involves endangered Southwestern plants.
Celebrating 85 Years of the Garden: GROWING THE GARDEN’S COLLECTION
Thanks to Bert and Betty Feingold, generous donors and Desert Botanical Garden members since 1983, the Garden’s research, conservation and collections staff were able to make three expeditions in 2023 to the Arizona Strip, San Luis Potosi, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Celebrating 85 Years of the Garden: Research and Conservation Local to Global
For 85 years, Desert Botanical Garden has served as a global leader in research and conservation of desert plants and their habitats. Today, 26 Garden scientists collaborate with academic, research, and conservation groups across nine countries and four continents.
Help the Garden Track Monarchs This Winter
Have you seen monarch butterflies flying around your yard or favorite pollinator habitat? They are back for the winter season and in great numbers this year! Central and southern Arizona has monarchs roughly from October through March — it is too hot in the summer for...
Garden Researchers Describe 6 Agaves Domesticated by Southwestern Indigenous People
In the paper, “Pre-contact Agave Domesticates—Living Legacy Plants in Arizona’s Landscape” published in the Annuals of Botany, Garden researchers Wendy Hodgson, Andrew Salywon and volunteer Jane Rosenthal describe six rare domesticated agave species whose clones remarkably can still be found living in abandoned ancient fields in Arizona.
Meet the Garden’s Newest Research Assistant Luis Romero
Across the sandy desert floor in northwestern New Mexico, two small rare cactus species — Sclerocactus mesae-verdae and Sclerocactus cloverae — call this place home. Yet, these plants are threatened by poachers and habitat loss due to oil and gas development in the area, both of which have depleted their already low populations numbers in the wild.
