Built in 1985 at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, the Desert Garden Conservatory is a large greenhouse beside the 10-acre Huntington Desert Garden that supports a globally important collection of cacti and other succulents. Its more than 2,200 accessions span 43 plant families, 1,261 species and subspecies, and 246 genera from desert regions across the Americas and Africa, including many rare or endangered plants. Serving as a conservation facility, research resource, and preserve of genetic diversity, it also propagates rare and new succulents for distribution, helping ease pressure on wild populations.