Alexandria University Professor Donates Rare Cacti to AUC

AUC has recently received a rare collection of more than 1,000 cactus plants of different sizes and types from Saad El Din Al Rakshy, professor of dairy microbiology at Alexandria University.

For more than 40 years, Al Rakshy has been collecting cacti from different countries around the world, mostly from gardens in South America. The plants are now being housed at the South Tahrir farm, supervised by the Office of Facilities and Operations. Plans are underway to design and create a desert garden at AUC New Cairo with the appropriate landscape, conditions and environment suitable to the cactus plants.

“I have no doubt and I have full confidence that AUC will take care of my plants, even better than me, and I am positive [people at the University] will make them flourish,” said Al Rakshy, praising the great efforts in research and desert development that are conducted at AUC’s South Tahrir farm. “A lot of my colleagues served as consultants at the South Tahrir farm and have always spoken highly of the work they do with regards to desert development,” emphasized Al Rakshy, who served as a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Al Rakshy was first introduced to AUC in the 1940s when, as a Cairo University student, he would visit AUC to attend lectures and concerts hosted at Ewart Memorial Hall. “As a professor of agriculture, I am well aware of and have great respect for AUC’s principles, foundations and morals, and that is why I chose AUC to receive the group of cactus plants I have been collecting over the years,” Al Rakshy noted.