ABOUT THE COLLECTION

Desert Plants is a unique botanical journal published by The University of Arizona for Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum. This journal is devoted to encouraging the appreciation of indigenous and adapted arid land plants. Desert Plants publishes a variety of manuscripts intended for amateur and professional desert plant enthusiasts. A few of the diverse topics covered include desert horticulture, landscape architecture, desert ecology, and history. First published in 1979, Desert Plants is currently published biannually with issues in June and December.

Digital access to this material is made possible by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum, and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona.

QUESTIONS?

Contact Desert Plants editorial staff at desertplants@cals.arizona.edu.

Recent Submissions

  • Desert Plants, Volume 30, Number 2 (January 2015)

    Wiens, John F.; Van Devender, Thomas R.; Dimmitt, Mark A.; Department of Botany, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; University of Arizona Herbarium; Center for Sonoran Desert Studies, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 2015-01)
    Ironwood Forest National Monument, created in 2000, is located west of Tucson and south of Casa Grande, in Pima and Pinal Counties, south-central Arizona. The boundaries encompass parts or all of eight desert hill and mountain ranges and two valleys. In the flora of 593 taxa, one federally listed endangered plant species, Echinocactus horizonthalonius variety nicholii, occurs within the Monument. Two other plant species common in Mexico, Cathestecum brevifolium and Pisonia capitata, have their only known United States populations in the Monument. Flora plots revealed a wide range in species composition and numbers based on topography and geology. Census plots performed on Carnegiea gigantea, Olneya tesota, Parkinsonia florida, Parkinsonia microphylla, and Prosopis velutina showed populations in most areas of the Monument to be healthy and stable. When compared with floras of nearby sites of similar habitat, the Ironwood Forest National Monument was found to be remarkably rich in species and low in exotic taxa.