Expanding the Cactus Collection at the DBG

Presented by Noemi Hernandez Castro, Curator of the Cactus Collection at Desert Botanical Garden

Program Description:

As part of Desert Botanical Garden strategic planning, the living collections team of Research Collections and Conservation and Horticulture departments organize local and international field collecting trips to grow the wideness and depths of the collections, ensuring the sustainable and legal collection of cactus, succulents, and other plant forms.

In 2023, the DBG team traveled to the Chihuahuan Desert in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí, where they spent two weeks with local experts and members of educational institutions studying, documenting, and collecting species of the Cactaceae, Asparagaceae among other families, which were vouchered for herbarium specimens. They were able to collect fruits and seeds for the living collections growth. Noemi will share how DBG strategizes, plans, and executes collecting trips and how these excursions reflect the mission, vision and eventual planting beds and displays at the Desert Botanical Garden for all to enjoy.

Speaker Bio:

Noemí Hernández Castro currently works in her dream job as the Curator of the Cactus Collection at Desert Botanical Garden. She leveraged her degree in Biology to work with cactus and succulents for the past ten years in the National Botanical Garden of Mexico City in the National University UNAM, focusing on propagation, cultivation, conservation, and field exploration. She has also served as a Longwood Gardens Fellow in the class 2021-2022, where she learned the art of garden display for excellence and beauty through horticulture. Noemi is now enjoying a balance of both worlds at DBG where we she gets to combine conservation and garden display to share the beauty of the Sonoran Desert with others.