More than 500 species of plants are found on the UCSC campus! On just a short walk, you can travel through several ecologically diverse plant communities, including moist redwood ravines, mixed evergreen forests, knobcone pine forests, chaparral, grasslands, coastal prairie, and riparian/wetland areas. This astonishing botanical diversity is due in part to the diverse underlying geologic formations, topographic relief, and local climatic conditions found on campus.