Only a few weeks after opening, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s new Shoenberg Arid House is teeming with life. The newly-opened glass conservatory, included with the price of garden admission, holds a staggering 1,500 arid climate species including African, East Asian, Mediterranean and American succulents and cacti.
Among the collection, many of the threatened and rare plants featured were in the possession of the Garden for over 150 years. Karomia gigas, one of the rarest trees in the world and a member of the mint family, is the only one of its kind on display anywhere, with only 50 remaining in the wild.
The 8,900 square foot Arid House leads park goers along a winding trail through human-made rocky slopes and a stunning walled garden built to reflect Moorish design. Species in the Arid House are separated by ecoregions, or areas with similar climates, soils and geology where similar plants can thrive together.
Friends of the Garden may recognize the new addition to the park as a renovation of the 1990 Shoenberg Temperate House. With the opening of their arid-climate-focused collection, The Missouri Botanical Garden breaks ground by offering what the Garden’s website claims to be “one of the Garden’s most botanically diverse displays in a small area.”
