The Desert Laboratory is a historic biological research facility atop Tumamoc Hill (O'odham: Cemamagĭ Doʼag) at 1675 West Anklam Road in Tucson, Arizona.

It was founded by the Carnegie Institution in 1903 to study how plants survive and thrive in the heat and aridity of deserts, and was the first such privately funded effort in the nation.

[3] Beginning in 1906, numerous long term ecological observation areas were set up by Volney Spalding & Forrest Shreve on the 860 acres (3.5 km2) scientific domain of Tumamoc Hill.

Acting on the authority of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Frederick Vernon Coville Botanist of the USDA and Daniel T. McDougal of the New York Botanical Garden chose Tumamoc Hill as the location of the Desert Laboratory in February, 1903.

It is now operated by Tumamoc: People & Habitats, part of The University of Arizona's College of Science.