Yerba mansa	Cooper’s hawk	Aptenia cordifolia

Barbara Kennard Present
DEMONSTRATION GARDEN / RIPARIAN HABITAT

The Demonstration Garden presents many ideas for creating a desert oasis at your home using native plants and local materials. The soothing sounds of flowing water are everywhere in the gardens and endangered species of native fish (topminnow & desert pupfish) live safely in both the re-circulating stream and the grotto under the stairs. Plants found near perennial streams around Tucson are featured in this section. Don’t miss the Geology Wall. Here you can see and touch how the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains were formed. The Desert Tortoise habitat is also located in this area. Two tortoises and several whiptail and desert spiny lizards live year round in the small habitat. This charming garden is another favored site for brides-to-be planning a small, intimate, outdoor wedding.

The Park’s Riparian Habitat is a re-creation of the once abundant perennial streams of southern Arizona, in particular what you might find in Sycamore Canyon, 50 miles south in the Atascosa Mountains (4000 ft.). Riparian habitats are diverse associations of plants and animals that live on the banks of rivers and streams. The extraordinary importance of these habitats to native wildlife has caught the public’s attention in recent years. For example, it is estimated that roughly half of all breeding birds in the deserts and grasslands of the Southwest nest exclusively in riparian habitats. Given the number of species dependent on these areas, it is astonishing to note that riparian communities cover much less than one percent of the region’s total land mass!