The University of Alabama Arboretum is a 60-acre (243,000 m²)

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 ...

located near the intersection of Veterans Memorial Parkway and Pelham Loop Road in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

. The Arboretum's primary emphasis is on Alabama's native flora and fauna. It includes of walking trails through native piney woods and

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...

climax forest, a

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 ...

garden containing more than 250 species, ornamental plants, an experimental garden, a

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

garden, an open-air pavilion, and a children's garden. Two

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

s contain collections of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

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 ...

, and tropical plants. The Arboretum is open daily without charge from sunrise to sunset, except for a few major holidays. It is part of the University of Alabama Museums, which also include the Alabama Museum of Natural History,

Gorgas House Gorgas may refer to: *Gorgas Hospital, a hospital in Panama named after William C. Gorgas * USS ''General W. C. Gorgas'' (ID-1365), a United States Navy troop transport in commission in 1919 * USAT General W. C. Gorgas (1902), a United States Army ...

Moundville Archaeological Museum The Moundville Archaeological Museum is an archaeological park and museum in Moundville, Alabama The museum houses artifacts and displays exhibits on over 60 years of archaeological excavations and investigations in the Moundville Archaeological ...

, the Office of Archaeological Research, and

Paul W. Bryant Museum The Paul W. Bryant Museum is located on the campus of the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Founded in 1985, the museum was opened in 1988 to "house the history of Alabama football, with special emphasis on the legendary coach" Bear ...

See also