Help the Garden Track Monarchs This Winter

November 20, 2023

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...

Meet the Garden’s Newest Research Assistant Luis Romero

October 5, 2023

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...

Meet the Butterflies Arriving to Garden This Fall

September 18, 2023

The fall butterfly exhibit, Majestic Mariposas, opens Sept. 23 and is on display through Nov. 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Learn about some of the Southwestern butterflies you can meet in the exhibit this fall: Monarch butterflies are well known for their...

Desert Refuge: A New Way To Help Monarch Butterflies

September 27, 2022

In July, the decline of the migratory monarch butterfly was once again in the spotlight. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified migratory monarchs as endangered, naming habitat loss and climate change as major factors for their decline. In the...

Research Canines are Helping the Garden Find These Rare and Endangered Arizona Orchids

September 16, 2022

Meet Circe and Muon! They are two specially-trained dogs used in ecological research who are helping Desert Botanical Garden, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Smithsonian find rare and endangered orchids growing in southern Arizona. The research canines are on the hunt...