The Mizzou Botanic Garden contains thousands of plants within the campus of the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The Garden includes famous icons, such as

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

's original grave marker and the Columns of

Academic Hall Academic Hall was the original main building of the University of Missouri. It was dedicated in 1843 and destroyed by fire in 1892. Academic Hall's six Ionic columns, today known as The Columns, stand on Francis Quadrangle as the most recogniza ...

, and is open year-round, only asking for a small donation to visit. Notable collections within the Garden include: *

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 ...

in McAlester Park 4 acres (1.6 ha), with more than 100 trees of 43 species. * Asiatic & Oriental

Lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of Herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in mu ...

Garden. *

Beetle Bailey ''Beetle Bailey'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950. It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the old ...

Statue and Garden: Cartoon character Beetle Bailey and the surrounding gardens pay tribute to

Mort Walker Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips ''Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and ''Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips. ...

, creator of Beetle Bailey and MU distinguished alum. * Bulb Display Garden. * Butterfly Garden. *

Daylily A daylily or day lily is a flowering plant in the genus ''Hemerocallis'' , a member of the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. Despite the common name, it is not in fact a lily. Gardening enthusiasts and horticulturists have long ...

Garden: Features more than 50

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s of daylily hybrids donated by the Central Missouri

Hemerocallis A daylily or day lily is a flowering plant in the genus ''Hemerocallis'' , a member of the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. Despite the common name, it is not in fact a lily. Gardening enthusiasts and horticulturists have long ...

Society. * Ellis Perennial Garden. *

Hydrangea ''Hydrangea'', () commonly named the hortensia, is a genus of over 75 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Korea, and Japan. Most are shrubs tall, ...

: 10 varieties of the genus Hydrangea. * Jefferson Garden: Includes

cardinal flower ''Lobelia cardinalis'', the cardinal flower ( syn. ''L. fulgens''), is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae native to the Americas, from southeastern Canada south through the eastern and southwestern United States ...

, columbine,

Virginia bluebell ''Mertensia virginica'' ( common names Virginia bluebells, Virginia cowslip, lungwort oysterleaf, Roanoke bells) is a spring ephemeral plant in the Boraginaceae (borage) family with bell-shaped sky-blue flowers, native to eastern North America. ...

sweetshrub ''Calycanthus'', called sweetshrub, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Calycanthaceae. The genus includes two to four species depending on taxonomic interpretation; three are accepted by most 21st century sources. Description ''Calyca ...

, and

Rose of Sharon Rose of Sharon is a name that has been applied to several different species of flowering plants that are valued in different parts of the world. It is also a biblical expression, though the identity of the plant referred to is unclear and is dis ...

. A bronze sculpture of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the original tombstone, a simple

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

, which once sat next to Jefferson's grave, are also located in the garden. * Life Sciences Discovery Garden. * Mel Carnahan Quadrangle. * Memorial Union Gardens. * Native Missouri Tree Collection. *

Peony The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

Garden: Features peonies,

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and wid ...

s and other "old-fashioned" plants. * Perennial Phlox Garden: Features 11 varieties of perennial

phlox ''Phlox'' (; Greek φλόξ "flame"; plural "phlox" or "phloxes", Greek φλόγες ''phlóges'') is a genus of 67 species of perennial and annual plants in the family Polemoniaceae. They are found mostly in North America (one in Siberia) in di ...

and English

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s. * Rothwell Family Garden. * The Gardens on

David R. Francis Quadrangle David R. Francis Quadrangle is the historical center of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Known as The Quad it is the oldest part of Red Campus and adjacent to Downtown Columbia at the south end of the Avenue of the Columns. At i ...

: More than 100 hardy, herbaceous perennials, with ornamental shrubs, trees and annual flowers woven throughout the garden. * Tiger Plaza. * Tree Trails: There are three self-guided walks designed to highlight the trees on campus. * Wildlife Pond: In the 1920s, a spring north of Stephens Hall was transformed into a pond surrounded by a

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

with an arched bridge and Pagoda gate. Recently several water plants native to Missouri, including Water Lilies, Pickerel Weed, Copper Iris and Thalia have been added.

See also