For a Desert Campus, More Than Rocks and Cactus

By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK

Las Vegas

In most parts of this city of neon and glitz, it's easy to forget — in fact, almost impossible to believe — that Las Vegas lies within the Mojave Desert.

Yet here at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, just a few miles from the ornate fountains and high-rise casino hotels of the Strip, desert gardens bloom with surprising shocks of color: bright-red plumes of bird-of-paradise plants, deep-orange flowers of the globe-mallow bush, and purple, orchidlike blossoms of desert willows.