Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum at the Univeristy of Michigan

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Arb Parking Tip Free street parking spaces are sometimes available on Oswego St. near the Arb's Geddes Street entrance. Click here for a map.

Winter is a great time to take a stroll and appreciate the conifers along the trails at the Arb and Gardens. If you wish to avoid the chill of winter, stop into the Conservatory at the Gardens to experience the sights and smells of plants from all over the world.
Check out the bloom calendar.

Looking for a central location to hold a group meeting? How about catching up on some of your reading at a riverside bench? We have some of the University's best study spots.

Plump, short, spiny, and weird all describe plants in the arid house. These plants are from hot, frost-free deserts in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. All are specialists at surviving droughts. The collection has many examples of unrelated plants with very similar forms from similar environments around the world—a phenomenon known as convergent evolution.

The peak season for the arid house is late winter to early spring. Many succulent plants flower at this time, including the aloes (Aloe species), Easter lily cactus (Echinopsis species), and the spiny-trunked pachypodiums (Pachypodium). Among the rarest plants are the Namibian Welwitschia, which looks like a broad green ribbon and, as shown by DNA studies, is distantly related to pine trees.

The Arid House is in the Conservatory at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens site.

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