The Ruth Bancroft Garden 2.5 acres (10,000 m²) is a dry botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 containing more than 2,000 cactus

Cactus

A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines...

, succulents, trees, and shrubs native to Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, and Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It is located at 1500 Bancroft Road in Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History

The Garden began in the early 1950s as a private collection within Bancroft Farm, a 400 acres (1.6 km²) property bought by publisher Hubert Howe Bancroft

Hubert Howe Bancroft

Hubert Howe Bancroft was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote and published works concerning the western United States, Texas, Mexico, Central America, British Columbia and Alaska.-Biography:...

 (grandfather of Ruth's husband Phillip) in the 1880s as an orchard

Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

 for pears and walnuts. In the 1950s, Ruth Bancroft brought home a single succulent, an Aeonium

Aeonium

Aeonium is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae.The name comes from the ancient Greek "aionos" ....

 grown by Ms. Glenn Davidson. By 1972, the collection had outgrown its location and was moved to its current site, then an orchard of dying walnut trees.

In 1989, it became the first garden in the United States to be preserved by The Garden Conservancy, and has been open to the public since 1992.Today the Garden is an outstanding landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 of xerophytes (dry-growing plants).

Collection

Garden collections include: Aeonium

Aeonium

Aeonium is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae.The name comes from the ancient Greek "aionos" ....

s; Aloe

Aloe

Aloe , also Aloë, is a genus containing about 500 species of flowering succulent plants. The most common and well known of these is Aloe vera, or "true aloe"....

s, agavaceae-Agaves

Agavaceae

Agavoideae is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, order Asparagales. It has previously been treated as a separate family, Agavaceae. The group includes many well-known desert and dry zone types such as the agave, yucca, and Joshua tree...

; Brachychiton

Brachychiton

Brachychiton is a genus of 31 species of trees and large shrubs, native to Australia , and New Guinea . Fossils from New South Wales and New Zealand are estimated to be 50 million years old, corresponding to the Tertiary.They grow to 4 – 30m tall, and some are dry-season deciduous...

 trees including Brachychiton rupestris; Brahea

Brahea

Brahea is a genus of palms in the Arecaceae family. They are commonly referred to as Hesper Palms and are endemic to Mexico and Central America...

 palms including Brahea armata

Brahea armata

Brahea armata, commonly known as Mexican blue palm or "blue hesper palm", is a palm is native to Baja California. It is widely planted as an ornamental....

; Bromeliaceae-Bromeliads

Bromeliaceae

Bromeliaceae is a family of monocot flowering plants of around 3,170 species native mainly to the tropical Americas, with a few species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, Pitcairnia feliciana...

 including Dyckia

Dyckia

Dyckia is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Pitcairnioideae.The genus is named after the Prussian botanist, botanical artist and horticulturist The Prince and Earl of Salm Reifferscheid-Dyck ....

s, Hechtia

Hechtia

Hechtia is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Pitcairnioideae. The genus is named for Julius Gottfried Conrad Hecht , German counselor to the King of Prussia.. Except for H. gayorum, the plants of this genus are dioecious.-Species:-External links:* photos...

s, and Puya

Puya (genus)

Puya is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Pitcairnioideae. These terrestrial plants are native to the Andes Mountains of South America and southern Central America...

s (including Puya chilensis

Puya chilensis

Puya chilensis, is a terrestrial bromeliad originating from the arid hillsides of Chile. An evergreen perennial it forms large, dense rosettes of grey-green, strap like leaves edged with hooked spines. The green-yellow flowers are born on spikes up to 2 m high and which resemble a medieval mace....

); Butia

Butia

Butia,also known as a Pindo Palm is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae, native to South America in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina...

 palms; Dasylirion

Dasylirion

Dasylirion is a genus of 17 species of flowering plants, all native to Mexico, with three species also extending into the southwestern United States...

s including Dasylirion longissimum

Dasylirion longissimum

Dasylirion longissimum, the Mexican Grass Tree, is a species of flowering plant native to the Chihuahuan Desert and other xeric habitats in Northeastern Mexico.-Description:...

 and Dasylirion wheeleri

Dasylirion wheeleri

Dasylirion wheeleri is a flowering plant native to arid environments of northern Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern United States, in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and also in New Mexico and Texas.-Description:Dasylirion wheeleri is a moderate to slow-growing evergreen shrub...

; Dudleya

Dudleya

Dudleya is a genus of succulent perennials, consisting of about 45 species in southwest North America.Many plants in the Dudleya genus were formerly classified as Echeveria....

s, Echeveria

Echeveria

Echeveria is a large genus of succulents in the Crassulaceae family, native from Mexico to northwestern South America. The genus is named after the 18th century Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy...

s; Echinocacti

Echinocactus

Echinocactus is a genus of cacti in the subfamily Cactoideae. The generic name derives from the Ancient Greek εχινος , meaning "spiny," and cactus. It and Ferocactus are the two genera of barrel cactus. Members of the genus usually have heavy spination and relatively large flowers...

; Furcraea

Furcraea

Furcraea is a genus of succulent plants belonging to the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, native to tropical regions of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America...

s including Furcraea cabuya; Hesperaloe

Hesperaloe

Hesperaloe is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. It contains perennial yucca-like plants with long, narrow leaves produced in a basal rosette and flowers borne on long panicles or racemes...

s including Hesperaloe parviflora

Hesperaloe parviflora

Hesperaloe parviflora, also known as Red Yucca, Hummingbird Yucca, and Samandoque, is a plant which is native to Chihuahuan desert of west Texas east and south into central and south Texas and northeastern Mexico around Coahuila....

; Hesperoyucca

Hesperoyucca

Hesperoyucca is a small genus of three species of flowering plants closely related to, and recently split from, Yucca, which is in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae.-Description:...

s including Hesperoyucca whipplei; Jubaea chilenensis

Jubaea

Jubaea chilensis is the sole extant species in the genus Jubaea in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to southwestern South America, where it is endemic to a small area of central Chile, between 32°S and 35°S in southern Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and northern Maule regions...

 palms; Nolina

Nolina

Nolina is a genus of tropical xerophytic flowering plants, with the principal distribution being in Mexico and extending into the southern United States. Some botanists have included the genus Beaucarnea in Nolina. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae,...

s; Xanthorrhoea

Xanthorrhoea

Xanthorrhoea is a genus of flowering plants native to Australia and a member of family Xanthorrhoeaceae, being the only member of subfamily Xanthorrhoeoideae. The Xanthorrhoeaceae are monocots, part of order Asparagales. There are 28 species and five subspecies of Xanthorrhoea.-Description:All are...

s including Xanthorrhoea preissii

Xanthorrhoea preissii

Xanthorrhoea preissii , with the common name Balga, is a widespread species of perennial monocot in Southwest Australia. This plant, and other members of the genus Xanthorrhoea, are also known as grasstrees...

; and Yucca

Yucca

Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry parts of North...

s including Yucca filamentosa

Yucca filamentosa

Yucca filamentosa, commonly known as Adam's needle, is a medicinal plant native to eastern North America.Usually trunkless, Yucca filamentosa is a multisuckering plant with heads of 30 inch long, filamentous, blue green strappy leaves. The plant is fully hardy...

, Yucca gloriosa

Yucca gloriosa

Yucca gloriosa is an evergreen shrub of the genus Yucca. Common names include Spanish Dagger, Moundlily Yucca, Soft-tipped Yucca, Spanish Bayonet or Sea Islands Yucca.- Description :...

, and Yucca rostrata

Yucca rostrata

Yucca rostrata, also called Beaked yucca, is a tree-like plant belonging to the Yucca genus native to southern U.S. and northern Mexico....

.