This page is the gateway to Centennial Museum database of the plants of the Greater Chihuahuan Desert Region and of those plants present in the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens. This database is searchable by scientific and common names (because the same common names often are applied to different plants and different common names to the same plant, searches on them are less likely to satisfactory). Searches may also be by such descriptive keywords as "shrub" or "forb", "hummingbird" or "butterfly" for plants known to attract such pollinators, or such geographic denoters as "Big Bend" or "New Mexico". The results of a query will display links to plants meeting the search criteria. Rather than using the search engine, you may go directly to the plant-list pages.
For many plants, information is given pertinent to the use of the plant for water-conserving landscaping purposes. The Chihuahuan Desert Gardens are designed to show that such landscaping can go far beyond the gravel and cactus yard that so many people have been led to believe is the only choice.
The database is a work in progress, and there will be changes as time allows. Links to images and species accounts will appear on this list as they are added to the web pages (some plants lack links and are planned to be added in the future). Plants having one or more images in place are preceded in the list by the symbol §; links lacking this symbol lead to plant information even though images are not available yet.
In using the pronunciation guide for the scientific name, keep in mind that there often are several pronunciations in use, even among professional botanists. It is sometimes said that for any given scientific name, there is the pronunciation used by most people, the pronunciation used by the rest of the people, and the correct pronunciation. Few of us speak classical Latin—don't be overly concerned with pronouncing the names "correctly". Also, the primitive phonetic aids to pronunciation used here may be interpreted differently by various people.
For use of Centennial Museum material, including images, please see our usage and copyright page.
Last update: 29 Aug 2006