Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens

Plant of the Week!

Common name: Eagle Claws Cactus
Scientific name: Echinocactus horizonthalonius
Family: Cactaceae
Native range: Western Texas through southern New Mexico into Arizona, south into northern Mexico, including Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango.

Eagle Claws Cactus is one of the most spectacular bloomers in the Chihuahuan Desert! This slow-growing cactus features a bluish-green stem with well-defined ribs and tough spines that range in color from pink to gray. After a good spring or summer rain, it may reward patient observers with brilliant pink to magenta flowers that can be nearly as wide as the cactus itself! Each flower lasts only a single day. Blooms typically appear 7–10 days after rainfall, creating a fleeting but unforgettable display against the cactus's blue-gray stem. Although it may flower several times a year, you'll need good timing to catch the show.

Native to rocky, limestone-rich habitats, Eagle Claws Cactus thrives in full sun and excellent drainage. It's highly sought after by cactus enthusiasts, but its sensitivity to excess moisture can make it challenging to grow. Prefer to admire it without the worry of rot, drainage, or weather? Visit the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens and see our Eagle Claws Cacti in person, especially a week after a good rain!

People say the desert is monochrome, but we know it’s vibrant, resilient, and full of color.

This Pride month, we at the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens want to celebrate a universal truth: diversity makes our world a special place. And to prove it, we didn’t have to go far; we just had to look around us.

We recreated the Pride flag using just some of the incredible diversity of native flowers from the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at UTEP. Just like our communities, an ecosystem doesn’t survive through uniformity, but through variety. Every plant in our region, from the most delicate flower to the most imposing cactus, has a story of resilience, adaptation, and unique beauty.

Celebrating Pride is celebrating the freedom to flourish just as we are, no matter the circumstances. Our differences strengthen us, enrich us, and allow us to flourish together on the same ground.

Happy Pride Month! May diversity continues to make our world and our desert an extraordinary place. 🏳️‍🌈

These skull fragments belong to Anaschisma, a massive 10-foot-long amphibian from the late Triassic. Resembling a cross between a giant salamander and a crocodile, this flat-headed predator dominated ancient waterways 220 million years ago

We’re introducing new ways to experience objects from our collection through 3D visualization, offering a 360 degree view of pieces typically seen behind display cases.

This study features a quartz druse. Quartz druse formations shimmer with hundreds of tiny crystal points, each one formed as silica rich fluids slowly cooled and crystallized over time. Their clustered surfaces catch light in every direction, creating a natural sparkle.

Follow along to see more of these digital explorations.

Day 7 of : Hope

Hope grows when we learn to care.
For the final day of 2026, we are reflecting on the role museums can play in shaping a more thoughtful future.

At the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, hope takes root through school field trips, guided tours, family programs, educational activities, and community events like FloraFest.

When visitors explore native plants, local ecosystems, and the stories held in museum collections, they begin to build a deeper connection with the place we call home.

Through education, curiosity, and shared experiences, museums can inspire new generations to care for their communities, their environment, and their future.

Plant of the Week!

Common name: Giant Hesperaloe
Scientific name: Hesperaloe funifera
Family: Asparagaceae
Native range: Arid regions of northeastern Mexico, particularly in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi, with a few records in Val Verde County, Texas.

Giant Hesperaloe is a striking desert plant that forms impressive clumps of long, stiff blue-green leaves about 5 cm across edged with curly white fibers. The plant reaches 2 m tall and wide. In bloom, it sends up flower stalks towering to 4-5 meters tall, covered with creamy white to greenish tubular flowers that attract bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.

This species thrives in full sun, tolerates intense heat, and requires little water once established.

One of its most fascinating features is hidden in its leaves: they contain exceptionally strong fibers that have been used for generations to make rope, twine, and textiles. In fact, the species name funifera means "rope-bearer," a nod to this remarkable traditional use.

Day 6 of : Fun in the Museum.
Museums are places for learning, reflection, and discovery, but they are also places for creativity, community, and fun.

At the Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, programs throughout the year invite visitors to connect with collections, nature, and culture in playful and memorable ways.

From hands-on activities and family programs to seasonal events like Halloween at the Museum, these experiences remind us that curiosity can begin with laughter, imagination, and a sense of wonder.

Day 5 of : Museums for the Planet.

Some of the most biodiverse places on Earth are also among the most threatened.
For today’s theme, we are highlighting Biodiversity Hotspots Reimagined, a temporary exhibition that explores places rich in species, colors, forms, and ecological relationships.
For decades, UTEP professors and students have collected and studied plants, snakes, frogs, and other organisms from three biodiversity hotspots: the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands, Eastern Afromontane, and Southwest Australia.
Curated by UTEP Biodiversity Collections () in collaboration with the Centennial Museum, this exhibition brings together scientific collections, conservation stories, and the artistic vision of UTEP graphic design students.
It invites visitors to see biodiversity hotspots not only as places of crisis, but also as places of possibility, learning, and hope for a shared future.

Day 3 of : If Objects Could Speak.

“If I could speak, I would tell you about a journey that did not go as planned.”

My name is Pete. I was a pelican, a migratory bird built for long distances and seasonal movement. Birds like me can travel thousands of miles, often moving between northern regions and warmer wintering grounds farther south.

In 1954, my journey brought me to El Paso, where I surprised the community at Ascarate Park. Later that year, I became part of the Centennial Museum’s history.

Today, my story reminds us that museum objects and specimens carry more than facts. They hold stories of migration, chance, place, and memory.

For more about Pete’s past, visit the link in our bio and select “The Spring Issue.”