Arizona Illustrated: UA Herbarium, AZ Wines & Chicanx Art

This week on Arizona Illustrated…we visit Herring Hall, the first home of Arizona Public Media; the U of A Herbarium is celebrating 135 years of collecting and preserving plant specimens; the challenges and possibilities of growing wine grapes in the desert; Galeria Mitotera is bringing artists and community together in South Tucson and the Desert Ironwood provides more than just shade in our urban landscape.

Herbarium
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens, some hundreds of years old, used for scientific study. We go inside the herbarium at the University of Arizona, founded in 1890, and look at the collection of nearly half a million dried plant specimens.

Arizona Wines – The Edge of What’s Possible
When thinking of premiere wine grape-growing regions around the world, Arizona rarely comes to mind. That’s because grape farming in Arizona sits right on the edge of what’s possible with viticulture. There are heat waves, vine-cracking winter frosts, and most extreme of all: monsoons during the harvest season that can transform the chemistry of wine grapes overnight. But Arizona winemakers are resilient, and the state’s wine industry is booming. There’s a unique terroir you can taste, with a palate unlike any other.

Galeria Mitotera
Mel & Melissa Dominguez opened Galería Mitotera in 2018 as a space that celebrates and uplifts Chicanx culture and artists of color. Join Mel and Melissa as they host an indigenous art show in South Tucson and discover the passion they have for local art in their community.

Desert Plants – Ironwood
As part of the recurring series about recommended plants for our region, we hear about the desert ironwood, Olneya tesota, which is a tough and essential tree in the Sonoran Desert. Among other attributes, the ironwood trees provide shade, habitat, and nutrition to plant and animal species in our region. Tweet