The Riverside Nature Center is a non-profit

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

with wildlife and native plant sanctuary located on the Guadalupe River at 150 Francisco Lemos Street,

Kerrville, Texas Kerrville is a city in, and the county seat of, Kerr County, Texas, Kerr County, Texas, United States. The population of Kerrville was 24,278 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Kerrville is named after James Kerr (Texas politi ...

. The gardens are open daily without charge. The center was first envisioned in 1987 by Susan Sander, with the Riverside Nature Center Association (RNCA) organized in 1989. Today's site was purchased in 1992. With extensive clearing and planting, it has become an

with over 140 tree

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, approximately 200 species of

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the w ...

cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

, shrubs, and native

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es. It also contains a butterfly plant garden, sensory garden with Braille signs, and natural area with river trail.

See also