Herbarium

The Desert Botanical Garden Herbarium (DES) focuses on plants of arid and semi-arid regions of the world with special emphasis on southwestern US and northern Mexico. Collections were initiated in 1950, and in 1972 DES was designated as a National Resource Collection. Strengths of the Desert Botanical Garden Herbarium include collections representing:

• Agavaceae and Cactaceae
• Vascular plants from southwestern US and northern Mexico
• Ethnobotany
• the Garden's Living Collection

DES has approximately 66,000 accessioned sheets of vascular plants. The geographic representation is approximately:

• Arizona - 42%
• Americas south of the US - 27%
• US, other than Arizona - 20%
• Old World and cultivated - 8%

Areas of taxonomic concentration include the following families in descending order:

• Cactaceae
• Asteraceae
• Agavaceae
• Fabaceae
• Poaceae

The Cactaceae and Agavaceae collections are especially valuable because they are large, are geographically well-represented and curated, and include numerous rare taxa. The DES type collection houses 136 types representing 33 families, with Cactaceae (45) and Agavaceae (34) especially well represented.

Learn more about the Herbarium and the work that we do by browsing through:

• Current Projects
• Research Services
• Publications Citing DES