McCrory Gardens and South Dakota State Arboretum (70 acres) are

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe 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, an ...

s and an

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 on the

South Dakota State University South Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually-operating university in South Dakota. The ...

campus in

Brookings, South Dakota Brookings is a city in Brookings County, South Dakota, Brookings County, South Dakota, United States. Brookings is South Dakota's List of cities in South Dakota, fourth largest city, with a population of 23,377 at the 2020 United States census, 20 ...

. McCrory Gardens is operated and maintained by South Dakota State University and named in honor of Professor S. A. McCrory, head of SDSU's

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

department from 1947 until his death in 1964. McCrory Gardens has over 25 acres of formal display gardens and 45 acres of arboretum featuring hundreds of different flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses in harmonious settings to display, educate, and further the development of new varieties. The South Dakota State Arboretum features trees and shrubs that are adapted to South Dakota's climate. In addition new selections of trees and shrubs are trialed to test their adaptability to local growing conditions. The gardens are funded primarily by donations, memberships, admission fees, special gifts, and endowment returns. Ongoing research continues to provide new information to the scientific community and the public on the introduction, cultivation, and arrangement of native and domesticated plants. The testing and evaluation of new woody plant selections and varieties in the climate of the northern

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

, initiated by

Niels Ebbesen Hansen Niels Ebbesen Hansen (January 4, 1866 – October 5, 1950) was a Danish-American horticulturist, botanist, and agricultural explorer for the United States Department of Agriculture and the state of South Dakota. He searched the harsh environments ...

almost three-quarters of a century ago, remains an integral part of research.

See also