Xeric Garden
The Xeric Garden demonstrates how drought-tolerant plants and an efficient irrigation system combine to save water and create an attractive landscape.
Purpose and scope of the collection
The Xeric Garden combines with the East and North Malls to form the Arboretum Core and create the green heart of campus. The garden is an example of the use of native and other drought-tolerant species in a residential- scale landscape. It is a tool for monitoring the suitability of drought-tolerant plants for use in the arid urban environment of Las Vegas. The Xeric Garden is designed as an extension of the Barrick Museum of Natural History, creating an outdoor exhibit of plants indigenous to the four North American deserts, as well as plants introduced from Australia, South America, Mexico and the Mediterranean.
Design intent
Demonstrate water-efficient gardening with drought-tolerant plants. Create a quiet, shady oasis in the heart of campus using shade structures, water features, benches, paving, and native stone. Create place for education, research, and social events.
Special features
Klinkhammer Bird Viewing Ramada
Collection — specific interpretations of this policy and special
- Maintain the Xeric Garden in a manner true to the original design intent. Retain its shady, rustic enclosed character.
- Prevent incursions of pavement and non-xeric plants into the Garden.
- Minimize disturbance of mature trees.
- Replace trees with the same species whenever possible, but take advantage of new construction to increase species diversity.
- Wholesale changes to either the design or the planting plan are not permitted.
- All trees should be accessioned as individuals. Outside the Garden, accession individual trees when they are 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.
Programs supported by the collection
- UNLV Biology: BIO 122 Desert Plants, BIO 345 Urban Horticulture, BIO 422 Taxonomy of Vascular Plants, BIO 426 Plant Anatomy, BIO 442 Principles of Plant Physiology
- UNLV Landscape Architecture: AAL 246 Plant Materials, AAL 355 History of Landscape Architecture, 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 103 Ornamental Plant Identification, OH 107B Landscape Materials, OH 203 Introduction to Plant Pathology and Landscape Pests, OH 205 Landscape Planning/Design, OH 213B Drought Tolerant Landscape Plant Identification
Collection data
Type of collection: Landscape
Year established: 1988
Guidelines created: June 2003
Last revised: March 2006
Proposed by: Dennis Swartzell, UNLV Facilities Manager
Jack W. Zunino, Landscape Architect
Location: At the east entrance to the Marjorie Barrick Museum and the courtyards of Wright Hall
Size: About 1.5 acres
Amenities: Over 9,000 square feet of paved pathways, benches, two ramadas for shade
Last inventoried: in progress
Number of species: n/a
Number of specimens: n/a
