Arboretum
When we say “campus,” we don’t just mean buildings, we mean the cactuses, succulents and other draught-tolerant trees that typify the Southwest. Our Campus Arboretum isn’t a sequestered garden — it’s everything you see around you.
Campus Takes Root
From the beginning, the U of A has been a living laboratory for plants and crops that stood a chance of surviving the harsh desert climate. Early U of A researchers, for example, experimented extensively with olive tree varietals in view of developing the agricultural commodities that would eventually help Arizona become a state.
Native and Draught-Tolerant
As time went on, campus jettisoned some of its more water-intensive plants for draught-tolerant alternatives like the palo verde tree. These innovations changed not only the look of campus, but, through outreach and relationships between the U of A and regional plant nurseries, the look of the urban landscape at large.
Sustainable Futures
Campus is a beautiful place, but it’s also a functional one. From drainage basins and rainwater-retention systems to the testing of plants capable of surviving ever-hotter and drier climates, the U of A is helping lead the way in cultivating what a sustainable, responsible future might look like.