ORtell you what a passion. Spring around the corner can certainly be an opportunity to plan a day outdoors among the blooms. Perhaps in view of the Fascination of Plants Day (18 May), an international event which is also celebrated in Italy and which includes a calendar full of events, spread over several days. You can start by visiting one of the six treasure chests of plant biodiversity that join the Lombardy Botanical Gardens Network. Here they are.
Brera Botanical Garden, Milan
The Brera Botanical Garden is a jewel created in 1774 by order of Maria Teresa of Austria. At the end of 2024 it will start the celebrations of the 250th anniversary, which will extend throughout 2025. «It is an oasis of peace with a historical flavor where you can be surprised by the richness of the plants and the beauty of the architecture in which it is immersed: Accademia, Art gallery, Braidense Library, up to the Astronomical Observatory and the Istituto Lombardo Accademia Scienze e Lettere» says Antonella Testa, curator of the Brera Botanical Garden Museum of the University of Milan.
Work is currently underway on new spaces. In the second half of the year, part of the precious historical herbarium will be exhibited of the University preserved in the Città Studi headquarters. In Brera, among the collections that stand out are those of salvias from all over the world, asteraceae that bloom from summer to late autumn and peonies which bloom spectacularly but for a limited period of time around May. Linked to the history of the Garden, originally a Jesuit garden annexed to the pharmacy of Palazzo Brera, is the area of medicinal plants. Among the rarities is Digitalis purpurea, from which an active ingredient is obtained to treat heart diseases.
“Lorenzo Rota” Botanical Garden of Bergamo
Set in the Venetian walls of the Upper Town, the botanical garden is a panoramic terrace overlooking the city, the Po Valley and the Pre-Alps, accessible to the public from March to November. The route winds through collections of aromatic, medicinal and dyeing plants and also through different microhabitats with native plants. In the area dedicated to exotics, the very rare one is worth seeing Wollemia nobilis. «It is an Australian plant, discovered only thirty years ago in a few specimens» explains Gabriele Rinaldi, director of the garden. «We are trying to entrust seeds and seedlings to botanical gardens around the world to ensure their conservation. Ours is found in the shade of the Australian Macadamia tetraphylla and the New Zealand Cordyline australis.” At the end of April, the spectacular flowering of the Davidia involucrata or handkerchief tree, a plant of oriental origin, is unmissable. The aquatic exotics are also interesting, including the lotus flower and Pontederia. The garden preserves a specimen of Osmunda regalis or florid fern, which has now disappeared in many places.
At the end of March, however, the tulips create a carpet of colours. Once winter is over, the tropical plants kept partly in greenhouses and partly entrusted to the schools that take care of them, return outdoors. Also in the Upper Town, the Sala Viscontea, which is part of the garden, hosts events and exhibitions. Another section is located in Astino, on the outskirts of Bergamo. «It is the Valley of Biodiversity, where we grow 1000 varieties of vegetables and 200 varieties of fruit trees, collaborating with producers with a view to sustainability». Among the vines, for example, there are recent hybrids that require less copper and treatments. «Our aim is to make biodiversity popular with everyone» comments Rinaldi.
Pavia Botanical Garden
The oldest botanical garden in Lombardy celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2023. This year it has decided to redo its look: the ongoing works limit access to only some areas, but the garden can still be visited. There will be an extraordinary Sunday opening on February 25th, then from March 1st to April 15th you will be able to enjoy the first blooms. In particular, the focus is on bulbous plants: irises, tulips, daffodils and gladioliwhile the rose garden this year, in May, will remain without an audience.
An attraction are the historic Scopoli greenhouses from 1776, designed by Giuseppe Piermarini, the architect of the Teatro alla Scala: they host succulent plants from desert environments and Cycads, plants that appeared on Earth before the dinosaurs. Don’t miss the arboretum, with the Scopoli plane tree, sown in 1778: today it is a giant 45 meters high and is included in the list of monumental trees in Italy. Until mid-April, you can also admire the Pavia tea plant, that is Camellia sinensis “Ticinensis introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. It’s no joke: in the 1930s, during the autarchy, it was cultivated precisely to obtain the precious drink.
The “forbidden vineyard” features some American vines, which helped us overcome the crisis caused by phylloxera, an insect that devastated European vines, acting as rootstock. But their grapes, again in the 1930s, were prohibited, so as not to compete with the European vines in difficulty. «Until April 15th you can also see the collection of aquatic and marsh plants» explains Silvia Assini, director of the Botanical Garden. «We have two aquatic species that are now rare in nature: the fern Marsilea quadrifolia and Isoëtes malinverniana – similar to a fern – which it would be nice to propagate and reintroduce into the natural environment». These two little plants may seem insignificant, but they are truly precious: Isoëtes, in particular, exists only in the western Po Valley. The first weekend of April there will be a Spring Festival, then the garden will reopen in September.
“GE Ghirardi” botanical garden of Toscolano Maderno (Brescia)
Toscolano Maderno is a delightful village on the shores of Lake Garda, which also boasts a truly special green oasis. Originally an experimental station for a pharmaceutical company, this botanical garden was donated to the University of Milan in 1991. In May 2024 it will reopen after a series of renovations, so it’s the right opportunity to go and discover it in its new guise.
«The strong point are the medicinal plants, coming from every corner of the globe thanks to its founder, who was looking for their therapeutic potential” says Gelsomina Fico, director of the Botanical Garden. «Among the first to arrive is our symbolic plant. It’s called Camptothoteca acuminata Decne, originally from Asia. In the 1960s it was highly sought after for camptothecin, an anti-tumor alkaloid from its bark.” Growing it in Italy was not easy: today some well-adapted specimens watch over the entire garden from above. An important innovation for 2024 is the new signage, which makes it easier to understand how the garden is a real molecule workshop. For each plant it is told how it interacts with the surrounding environment, how it can be used (for example, what useful substances it contains for the treatment of diseases), the scent it gives off. The botanical garden is home to Salvia blepharophylla Brandegee and Salvia greggii A. Gray, two species with brightly colored flowers, which attract bees of the Lasioglossum genus.
Botanical Garden of Città Studi, Milan
Since 2001, in the area of an ancient farmhouse owned by the municipality, the University of Milan has had a botanical garden intended primarily for research, teaching and conservation. From March to October, however, anyone can discover its treasures. Don’t expect to find monumental trees: there are only a few hundred-year-old poplars. But if you want to discover what the Lombardy woods were like before the invasion of exotic species and the damage done by man, this is the right place. The original habitats of our region have been recreated here.
«The forest is not just made up of trees and shrubs» point out Elisabetta Caporali, deputy director of the garden, and Mario Beretta, technical biologist. «We favor the formation of humus which allows the growth of the herbaceous flora of the undergrowth, such as lily of the valley, snowdrops, lungwort». In addition to the collection of succulent plants including numerous cacti, the presence of carnivorous plants, native to tropical and temperate areas, arouses great curiosity. It is unmissable Utricularia vulgaris, a European aquatic carnivore, capable of sucking up microinvertebrates such as tiny crustaceans and even small mosquito larvae. «In Italy it was present in four sites between Lombardy, Sardinia and Tuscany. The rise in temperatures that dry up the pools, eutrophication and the scarcity of clean water have brought it to the brink of extinction.” The botanical garden grows it, hoping that it can be reintroduced into nature.
A specimen of Sarracenia purpurea from the Città Studi botanical garden.
The collection of dyeing plants tells us how colors were obtained in the past before the advent of chemistry. If you think that plants are not ingenious, try to see, for example, Myrmecodia tuberosa from the glass of greenhouses: it has a swollen stem with internal tunnels, which in its countries of origin allows ants to colonize it, creating an anthill.
Rezia Alpine Botanical Garden, Bormio
Created in a former quarry overlooking the valley the Bormio botanical garden is open to everyone from the beginning of May until the end of October. During the summer of 2024, a new self-guided route will be inaugurated with wooden totems, containing removable cards, which will make the individual visit more fun and full of information. In the area of rock plants the star is the edelweiss, which has adapted to living at high altitudes by developing hair which protects it from strong ultraviolet rays. There is also a pond with aquatic species, where Pinguicula stands out, a carnivore found naturally in this area. Equally native is the orchid Cypripedium calceolus or Venus’s slipper, flowering between the end of May and the beginning of June.
The garden has lost some mountain species, coming from the snow valleys, due to climate change: it is too hot for them. There are two rhododendrons typical of the Alpine area: Rhododendron ferrugineum and Rhododendron hirsutum, very similar to the first, but which can be recognized by the tiny thorns on the leaves. «We also have some poisonous plants» underlines Daniela Praolini, manager of the botanical garden. “Aconitum napellus, for example, has beautiful purple blooms, but it’s best not to touch it.” The cows know this well, as they eat the rest of the grass in the mountain pastures, leaving the poisonous plants intact. It is also interesting to discover the traditional crops of the area such as flax and buckwheat. The botanical garden is sloping, with paths and steps. By notifying in advance it is possible to organize the visit even for those with mobility problems.
In Italy there are 102 official gardens
They are an entirely Italian invention: the first university botanical garden was born in Pisa, in 1544, with the aim of studying plants, to which the acclimatization of species from other continents was soon added. Today the mission of botanical gardens remains research together with the conservation of the most threatened plants. Furthermore, they have an important role in education to know and respect naturemaking children and non-expert adults discover how rich the plant world is, arousing in them a passion for plants.
In Italy there is no official census, but a second one Botanic Gardens Conservation International there are 102 institutions catalogued, including vegetable gardens and botanical gardens. They are real museums, where the collections are live plants, but can also include other study materials, from botanical illustrations to herbariums.
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