ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Botanical Garden has a collection of cacti and succulents that dates back more than a century, but it hasn't been on public display in its full glory since 1994. On Friday, that changes with the opening of the new Shoenberg Arid House.
According to a press release from MoBOT, the Arid House will show off their collection that dates back more than 150 years and includes about 1,500 types of cacti, succulents and other desert plants.
“The opening of the Shoenberg Arid House at the Missouri Botanical Garden is an important milestone in the Garden’s history,” Garden President and Director Peter Wyse Jackson said in a press release. “While the Garden has maintained a rich and important collection of desert and arid land plants from its earliest days, in recent years they have rarely been seen by our visitors."
Since MoBOT closed the Desert House in 1994, they have been showing parts of the collection when possible. Now, with a new facility, they can display it in a dedicated space.
“We tried to show as many of the arid plant collection as possible, however there was a lot of interest from visitors in having a dedicated display of our arid plant collections,” Andrew Wyatt, the Senior Vice President of Horticulture and Living Collections, said in the press release.
The collection includes one of the world's rarest trees, Karomia gigas. The tree, which is a member of the mint family, can grow to be up to 80 feet tall. The Garden has been working to save the tree from extinction. There are fewer than 50 left in the wild.
The Arid House will be open during the Garden's regular hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. It is included with Garden admission.
