Orto Botanico di Roma site features

The Orto Botanico occupies twelve hectares of hillside between Via della Lungara and the top of the Janiculum, entered through a gate in a quiet street behind Trastevere, and the first impression is of sudden depth: a flat formal area immediately inside, and behind it a wooded slope rising steeply away.

The lower garden is laid out and architectural. Gravel walks run between large masonry basins and clipped beds, past fountains — the eighteenth-century Fontana dei Tritoni and Fontana degli Undici Zampilli, both by Ferdinando Fuga, along with four fountains of uncertain period and scattered archaeological remains standing in the planting.

Palms dominate one open stretch. Tall fan and date palms rise out of mown grass in a group, their trunks bare for several metres, with low palmettos filling the ground beneath — a collection substantial enough to be on the IUCN red lists.

The slope above is woodland. The Mediterranean wood, predominantly oaks, covers the hillside as the vegetation once covered the whole Janiculum, and among it stand monumental centuries-old trees: oriental planes, cork oaks, Turkey oaks, downy oaks, Himalayan cedars, and gymnosperms — sequoias, pines, firs, larches, Cedars of Lebanon, cypresses and junipers.

Then a bamboo grove changes the sound. The collection is among the richest in Europe: dense green canes well above head height, the light going grey-green and the noise of the city dropping away.

And there are glasshouses, old and new. About 2,000 square metres of them, including three historic greenhouses — the Serra Corsini, the Serra Francese and the Serra Monumentale. The Serra Corsini, going back to the 1800s, holds succulents; the orchid house has about 400 species, from the common Cattleya to the "moth" orchids and the very strange vanda of south-east Asia with its very long stem; and the tropical greenhouse runs at rigorously controlled temperature and humidity.

The bamboo collection

Among the richest in Europe.

The palms

Substantial for the number of specimens and the presence of rare species, and included in the red lists of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The monumental trees

Oriental planes, cork oaks, Turkey oaks, downy oaks and Himalayan cedars, with over 300 specimens more than a century old belonging to over 130 species.

The Japanese Garden

Cherry trees, camellias and magnolias, with evocative water effects, small waterfalls and two enchanting little lakes.

The rose garden

About 60 species illustrating the evolution of the genus Rosa over the last 2,000 years of human history, at its best in the flowering month of May.

The Garden of Aromas

In large masonry basins; its species are recognisable through their tactile or olfactory characteristics, and all the plants carry labels in Braille for the blind.

The orchid house

About 400 species, from the common Cattleya to the "moth" orchids and the very strange vanda of south-east Asia.

The three historic greenhouses

The Serra Corsini — going back to the 1800s, with the succulents — the Serra Francese and the Serra Monumentale, in some 2,000 square metres of glass.

The tropical greenhouse

At rigorously controlled temperature and humidity, organised in themed areas showing the great biodiversity of the tropical forests.

The Mediterranean wood

Predominantly oaks, bearing witness to the vegetation that once covered the Janiculum.

Fuga's fountains

The Fontana degli Undici Zampilli and the Fontana dei Tritoni, with four more of uncertain period.

The Garden of the Simples and the Valley of the Ferns

Medicinal, or officinal, plants; and a collection of herbaceous ferns.