The popularity of cacti and succulents has made these once-specialty plants widely available and introduced a new generation ...

The desert prickly-pear, known to botanists as Opuntia phaeacantha, is the Southwest's most widespread and abundant species of cactus. Unlike the giant saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) that is restricted ...

An American desert icon is dying off in the southwestern United States. Experts say record-setting summers and intense droughts in Arizona are causing a well-known succulent to struggle. The saguaro ...

The University of Arizona’s Data Diversity Lab gives researchers a new way to picture the future of life on Earth. By blending ecology, evolution and advanced data science, the lab creates tools aimed ...

A new study shows that demand for wild cactus and rare plants many soon surpass supply in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico and the US. Gland, Switzerland – Demand for wild cactus and rare plants by ...

Signaling the end of spring, smoke trees in the desert washes become dotted with tiny bluish-purple blooms at the beginning of summer each year. The color is deep and distinct and has been revered by ...

With their tough skins, pointy armor and legendary stamina, cacti are made to defend themselves from whatever nature throws at them. But large solar energy facilities are one threat that cacti weren’t ...

One of the easiest ways to compare the differences between the various types of cacti and to learn how plants survive on steep, rocky slopes is on the Cactus Loop Trail. A nature-trail guide, ...

The cacti arrive in buckets and cardboard boxes, in truck beds and plastic cups. Some are prickly green knobs smaller than a fist; others are saguaros a few feet tall—miniature versions of the ...

There is a specific kind of silence that you only find in the Sonoran Desert. It is not an empty silence but a heavy, ...

From a sprawling botanical museum in Arizona to a cliffside succulent sanctuary in France, these gardens prove the desert is ...