Plants of the Mojave Desert
This collection displays a wide variety of plants native to the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States.
Purpose and scope of the collection
The Plants of the Mojave Desert collection serves as a resource for studies of Mojave Desert flora and their adaptations to its arid climate. It also displays native plants that are useful in urban residential, commercial, and public landscapes in the Las Vegas Valley and adjacent parts of southern Nevada with similar climatic conditions.
Low, widely spaced shrubs dominate the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada, southern California, southwestern Utah, and northwestern Arizona. Most rainfall occurs in winter but summer thunderstorms occasionally occur in the eastern part. About three-fourths of the desert lies at elevations between 2,000 and 4,000 feet. The Mojave supports relatively simple plant communities with few trees, but the presence of the distinctive Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia, right) marks the boundaries of this driest of North American deserts (Mielke 1993; Taylor 1992).
Collection — specific interpretations of this policy and special instructions
- Limit collection management to plants that are native to the Mojave Desert.
- All Mojave trees should be accessioned as individuals within the Arboretum Core. Outside the Core, accession individual trees when they rare part of a limited population of the species on campus.
- Only a few individual shrubs of each species should be accessioned, but they should be from different parts of the campus.
- Emphasize plants suitable for Climate Zone 11 (Medium to High Deserts of California and Southern Nevada as defined in the Sunset Western Garden Book).
- However, utilize microclimates found on campus to display as wide a variety of taxa and habitats, such as riparian areas and north-facing slopes, as practical.
- Plant specimens to simulate natural groupings wherever possible. Otherwise, group specimens according to their planting and culture needs.
Programs supported by the collection
- UNLV Biology: BIO 120 Plants and People, BIO 122 Desert Plants, BIO 148 Natural History of the Desert Southwest, BIO 345 Urban Horticulture, BIO 422 Taxonomy of Vascular Plants, BIO 426 Plant Anatomy, BIO 442 Principles of Plant Physiology
- UNLV Landscape Architecture: AAL 101 Design with Nature, AAL 246 Plant Materials, second through fifth-year design studios (AAL 284, AAL 286, AAL 384, AAL 386, AAL 484, AAL 486, AAL 494,AAL 496)
- CCSN Ornamental Horticulture: OH 213B Drought Tolerant Landscape Plant Identification
Collection data
Type of collection: Geographic
Year established: 2003
Guidelines created: March 2006
Last revised: March 2006
Proposed by: 2003 Long Range Planning Committee
Location: Dispersed throughout campus
Size: n/a
Amenities: n/a
Last inventoried: in progress
Number of species: n/a
Number of specimens: n/a
