Here are a few more shots of the desert greenhouse at the Missour Botanical Gardens.
There are multiple levels with lots in intricate areas for succulents and cacti. They definitely dehumidify the interior with just a little water fountain in the middle to add a tiny bit of humidity back into the air.
Many of the specimens are well labeled and you can learn quite a bit. They mix up cacti, arid plants and succulents together to keep it interesting. I remember finding the Reichenbach's Hedgehog accidentally in Arizona once. It is pretty rare and protected.
Now for a pincushion cactus or cacti bunch. It seemed they had variants of them with their subtle differences in this concrete rock planter. I couldn't quite tell what all the metal tags pointed to.
This was in the pincushion cactus area and it was starting to bloom.
Another nicer labeled batch of hedgehog cacti with some decorative succulents in between them. Some of these hedgehogs are quite small and remain that way, perfect for a tiny pot on a dry windowsill.
The overall space was quite large with some interesting almost Spaniard and Roman looking architecture.
They even brought in some palms, agaves and large saguaro type of cacti. Back home in Arizona the agave's grow like weeds, super easy to pick and make tequila out of them, though the process is not easy as you get sawed by their thorns.
Here is a fun looking African Milk Barrel cacti. I suspect it's white dusted powder look is why its called milk.
This one almost looks the same but it doesn't have the white dusting or a label, womp.
Here is another batch of blooming cactus labeled as Mammillaria geminispina. Super long thorns, some poor bee could be trying to get to the flowers and end up impaling itself there.
That's all for now. We spent an hour or so in there and we needed a heat break as it was hot inside. We barely scratched the surface of our skin with cacti thorns on what was in there. I'm sure I'll find myself there again in about a year to see some new things planted there.
Thanks for looking :-)