43°18′48.77″N11°19′54.082″E / 43.3135472°N 11.33168944°E /43.3135472; 11.33168944
| Orto Botanico dell'Università di Siena | |
|---|---|
 The Orto Botanico in Siena | |
 Interactive map of Orto Botanico dell'Università di Siena | |
| Type | Botanical |
| Location | Siena,Tuscany, Italy |
| Area | 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres) |
| Opened | 1588 (1588) |
| Operated by | University of Siena |
| Status | Open daily |
| Website | orto |
TheOrto Botanico dell'Università di Siena (2.5 hectares) is abotanical garden operated by theUniversity of Siena. It is located at Via P. A. Mattioli, 4,Siena,Tuscany,Italy, and open daily.
The garden's history reaches back to 1588 when the university began to raisemedicinal herbs. In 1756 the field of herbal studies was supplanted bynatural history, and starting in 1759, under the direction of Giuseppe Baldassarri, the garden began to collect uncommon plants. In 1784 theGrand Duke of TuscanyPeter Leopold began a university reform, and in a short time the garden's collection grew to contain more than a thousand new plants, many from abroad. Its first published record ('the Seminum Index Siena') listed some 900species, including several hundred from outside Italy. In 1856, the garden moved to its present location, the botany institute was constructed in 1910–1912, and in the 1960s the garden's area was doubled.
Today the garden is located inside Siena's city walls, covering one hillside of the valley S. Agostino. Its central collection is arranged in systematic order within brick-bordered, rectangular flower beds, along with old specimens of exotic and local plants. A farm area growsfruit,olive trees and vines of the mainChiantigrapes. The garden also contains threegreenhouses enclosing a total of about 500 m2, namely, a tropical greenhouse, a tepidarium that houses exotic species in winter as well as asucculent collection (120 m2) organized by country of origin, and anorangery containingcarnivorous plants and the principal citrus varieties grown inEurope.
Species endemic to the garden's undeveloped areas includeAlyssum bertolonii,Armeria denticulata,Centaurea aplolepa subsp. Carueliana,Euphorbia nicaensis,Stachys recta ssp. serpentinii, andThymus acicularis var. Ophioliticus.
It has its own Botanical Journal, 'Bullettino de Laboratorio ed Orto Botanico dell'Università di Siena'.[1]