Red Butte Garden is more than just a garden with pretty flowers, it is a museum of living plants. The plants are collected for their horticultural merit, use in research and conservation, and for their historical value. Careful records are kept on each plant that is accessioned into our collections.
There are many types of plant collections and Red Butte Garden has collections that each fall into one or more of the following categories:
- Arboretum: A collection of trees, held jointly on the University of Utah campus and Red Butte Garden.
- Ecological: Plants native to Utah.
- Ethnobotanic: Plants that have a history of use by humans.
- Geographic: Plants with horticultural value from other states or countries that will perform well in our climate.
- Research/Conservation: Threatened, rare, and endangered species.
- Taxonomic: Represents species, varieties, and cultivars of select taxa.
Aside from our impressive collections, we also maintain a variety of ornamental displays. Displays are plants that are not included in our curated plant collections. We do not keep the same records on them, rather, they are used to enhance our landscape plantings. Our most noteworthy displays include: Daffodils, Miniature Bulbs, and Succulents.
To learn about a few of our collections and displays, please click the images below.
Curious about the plants in the Natural Area? Click on the list to find out what's growing! Natural Area Checklist