CARSIANA Giardino Botanico - Botanični Vrt
Institution Code: CARS
BGCI Member: Yes
About the CARSIANA Giardino Botanico - Botanični Vrt
The Carsiana Botanical Garden is located in the Municipality of Sgonico, 18 km from Trieste, along the provincial road that connects the village of Sgonico to that of Gabrovizza.
Carsiana was created in 1964 through a desire of the founders, Dr. Gianfranco Gioitti, Dr. Stanislao Budin and Prof. Livio Poldini. Dr. Gianfranco Gioitti purchased and provided the land, oversaw the preparation of the botanical garden for over 40 years and was Horti Praefectus. Dr. Fabrizio Martini and Mr. Eliseo Osualdini also contributed to its development and its floristic enrichment, initially making use of the help of Mr. Giovanni Kocman of Sgonico. The garden was conceived with the aim of collecting, conserving and illustrating the spontaneous flora and vegetation of the Karst, but set in a natural context. The garden contains the native plant species of the Karst, located in their respective environments, which are laid out along the slopes of the doline that characterizes it.
In 2002 the Garden was purchased by the Province of Trieste and from 1st July 2016 it was transferred to the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Maintenance activities, those connected to the use, interpretation and promotion of the Garden are assigned to an external service and since 19th December 2018 the management of Carsiana has in fact been entrusted to the Rogos Cooperative.
The Classical Karst (Matični Kras in Slovenian) is a plateau of carbonate rocks running in a north-west south-east direction and covering an area of almost 700 square kilometres, divided between Slovenia and Italy. To the north-west the boundary is the flood-plain of the Isonzo (Soča) river with the reliefs of Redipuglia as its westernmost point as far as the Timavo springs while to south-west to the south-east the limit is naturally represented by the north-eastern Adriatic coast of the Gulf of Trieste and the lithological contact with the Flysch (sandstones and marls) in the south-west, continuing in the same direction, up as far as the Val Rosandra (Glinščica). From here towards the northeast, the perimeter is less clear, passing around Mount Carso (Griža / Mali Kras) up to and beyond the area of the Škocjan Caves, where the Reka River (the upper Timavo) disappears below the limestone, omitting (to the southeast) its flyschoid basin, while; to the north the boundary runs from the southern slopes of Mount Vremščica (Auremiano) continuing in a north-westerly direction towards the Raša torrent, the Branica river and the contact between the Flysch of the Vipava Valley (Vipacco) and the cabonatic rocks until they meet again at the confluence of the Vipacco and Isonzo rivers.
The calcareous substrates are very permeable resulting in a widepread aridity that can be locally exacerbated by the heat-reflecting action of bare rocks. The high permeability of this substrate is due to the fracturing of the calcareous rocks which encourage the infiltration of the water network that is now totally hypogeal, leading to a hydrography that develops at a depth of 200-500 m (Poldini, 1972). The hypogean Karst also manifests itself with caves that generally follow the position of the layers and with pot-holes that are formed in correspondence to subvertical fractures.
The karst lakes of Doberdò and Pietrarossa and the Rosandra torrent are almost the only example of surface waters.
There are about 600 floristic species gathered in the 5000 square metres dedicated to the botanical gardens. The area was chosen because, in this small piece of land, are found all the main geomorphological conformations of the Karst with their respective associated plant formations naturally present. The natural conformation of the garden has allowed the structuring of the botanical displays following an interpretation of their ecological characteristics and not according to systematic rules, thus allowing a more intuitive understanding of the link between the Karst’s vegetation, climate and geology. Carsiana therefore seeks to be a “synthesis of the Karst landscape” that provides the visitor with an exhaustive picture of the main ecological aspects of the area.
The environments that the visitor encounters in Carsiana are:
> Karst scrubland
> screes
> Karst woodland
> dry Karst grassland
> coastal cliffs
> sinkhole woodland
> mountain Karst
> water bodies
> karstic pot-hole
The displays are completed by some flower beds dedicated to the spontaneous medicinal plants of the Karst.
In 2018 the Regional administration of Friuli Venezia Giulia established the “Carsiana” interdisciplinary work group, in order to provide technical and scientific support for the definition of the operational guidelines for the management of the Garden. This work group thus has the function of providing the technical and scientific guidance needed to ensure uniformity and continuity in the management of the garden, including from a strictly natural history perspective.
The work group is composed of Fulvio Affatati (expert in garden management), Giuliana Renzi (administrative coordination), Michela Tomasella (botanist expert) and Marco Valecic (expert in garden management), and also makes use the collaboration of Laura Sgambati.
The activities carried out by the Group can be summarized as follows:
- the continual verification of the botanical collections
- the development of project proposals for extraordinary maintenance interventions aimed at the sustainable remodeling of the Garden, with particular attention to the use of the water resources, the use of phytosanitary techniques (only those involving biological control are allowed) and for the production of its own compost
- the setting out of specific management guidelines for each habitat represented in the Garden and operational indications for the maintenance and management with a view to a historical-philological restoration of the Garden
- the drawing up of guidelines and criteria for updating the functions of the Garden, in accordance with the provisions of the Action Plan for Botanic Gardens in the European Union prepared by Cheney et al. (2000) for European Botanic Gardens Consortium
- the development of guidelines and criteria for educational and interpretative activities
From 19th December 2018 the management service of Carsiana has been delegated to the Rogos Cooperative which carries out garden maintenance activities, connected to the garden’s use, its interpretation and promotion.
The logo of the Carsiana Botanical Garden
The identity of the Garden goes hand in hand with the relaunch of its mission and its cultural role, precisely because (as written in 1980 by the authors Poldini, Gioitti, Martini and Budin in the book “Introduzione alla flora e alla vegetazione del Carso” ("An introduction to the flora and vegetation of the Karst”), “Carsiana is an environmental education tool that, by influencing the conscience of the population, can contribute to a correct use of the local environment and its resources”. With this direction indicated by the founders, a logo was therefore sought to identify the most threatened and precious element of the Karst today: the landa carsica. These dry grasslands have always been perceived as not very productive and therefore of little value, but in reality they constitute an enormous patrimony of biodiversity, protected by Regional, national and European Union legislation and of which the whole community should feel themselves the guardians.
The words of the writer Scipio Slataper: “My Karst is hard and good. Each of its blades of grass has split the rock to sprout, each of its flowers has drunk of the heat to unfold.” echoed in the minds of the Working Group. Thus a flower was sought that represented the perseverance and tenacity of life that emerges from the rock and after careful consideration, the choice thus fell on Rock Knapweed (Centaurea rupestris), a humble and inconspicuous flower, disheveled by the Bora wind and yellow like the summer sun.
It is perhaps not the most “beautiful” flower in the Garden, but it is certainly the most representative of the conservation and protection objectives of this area. Centaurea rupestris is in fact a characteristic species of the vegetational association (which it takes its name from) the Carici-Centaureetum rupestris, a plant community better known as “landa carsica”.
Today Centaurea rupestris also represents the Region's commitment to protecting the most sensitive and unsusual environments of the Karst and to continue, in the footsteps of the founders of the Garden, in the work of raising awareness and education. This is the hope and commitment of the entire Carsiana staff.
Main Address:
CARSIANA Giardino Botanico - Botanični Vrt
Sgonico-Zgonik 55, 34010 Sgonico-Zgonik (TS)
Trieste
Friuli Venezia Giulia Italy
Telephone: +39 389 5870090
Fax:
URL: www.giardinobotanicocarsiana.it
Primary Email: info@giardinobotanicocarsiana.it