new world dessert

This is one of the oldest and best-known collections in the Garden with some of the plants dating back to the 1930s. Rich in cacti, succulents and herbaceous desert dwellers, the plants in this area are from North and Central American deserts, as well as the high deserts of the Andes. The Baja Peninsula beds contain flora similar to that of southwestern California deserts. The giant cacti (Echinopsis), similar to the saguaro cactus of the southwestern United States, are from South America.