Cacti

For some years Chester Zoo has displayed a large collection of cacti and succulents.

In recent years this collection has been expanded and we now have over 1500 plants in our nursery.  Most plants are still available to grow from seed. When we were putting the collection together one major consideration was the size of the plants. Most of the species we concentrate on are very small or are slow growers and this allows us to house a large group in a small space. We have given over one of our glasshouses to grow the cacti collection and our nursery staff is quickly gaining the specialist skills and knowledge required to grow these tricky plants.
We have now assembled collections of three genera of cacti which have each achieved Plant Heritage National Collection status; Copiapoa, Matucana and Turbinicarpus.
We also hold an extensive collection of Mammillaria species and we would like to thank the late Richard Harbour for donating his collection to the zoo.
Chester Zoo is currently investigating opportunities to link our ex-situ cactus collections with conservation projects in the wild.