The Orto botanico riserva Lago di Penne (Italian: ''Botanical garden of the Penne Lake Preserve'') is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

located within the , southwest of

Penne, Abruzzo Penne (, ; ''Pònne'' in the local dialect) is an Italian town in the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region, in mid-southern Italy. According to the last census in 2014 the population was 12,451. In 2012 Penne was selected as one of the "Most ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The garden was established in 1988 and contains plants organized by geography and ecological system.

History

The garden itself covers 1 hectare. It was established in 1988, one year after the Riserva Lago di Penne. In 1997 it was recognized as a botanical garden of regional interest, pursuant to

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

law n.35/1997. In 1998, the Reserve adopted a forest management plan using naturalistic

silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...

principles.

Organization

Visitors enter the garden along the lakeside after passing the visitor center. Continuing along the lake, their path encounters the

Duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

Center, the

Otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...

Center, and wildlife areas dedicated to

ferret The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, Domestication, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their Hybrid (biol ...

s and

tortoises Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like other ...

. This is followed by the main botanical walking path (Percorso Botanico). It includes a route dedicated to aromatic plant species, set up for the blind with interpretive signs in

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

, and sections dedicated to

Maquis shrubland 220px, Low maquis in Corsica 220px, High ''macchia'' in Sardinia ( , , ) or ( , ; often in Italian; hr, makija; ; ) is a shrubland biome in the Mediterranean region, typically consisting of densely growing evergreen shrubs. Maquis is char ...

downy oak ''Quercus pubescens'', the downy oak or pubescent oak, is a species of white oak (genus ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'') native to southern Europe and southwest Asia, from northern Spain (Pyrenees) east to the Crimea and the Caucasus. It is also fou ...

-dominated xeric forest, black hornbeam-dominated

mesic forest In ecology, a mesic habitat is a type of habitat with a moderate or well-balanced supply of moisture, e.g., a mesic forest, a temperate hardwood forest, or dry-mesic prairie. Mesic habitats transition to xeric shrublands in a non-linear fashion, ...

riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. Etymology The term riparian comes from the Latin word '' ...

, and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

. The garden's plants are arranged by geography and ecology, rather than by taxonomy, in order to reconstruct Abruzzo's major plant associations.

Natural history

The Orto botanico riserva Lago di Penne is located at 250 m elevation, along the lake shore, with an extension of slightly less than 1 ha along the basin of the river Tavo. The Tavo is a right-hand tributary of the river Saline, on which the Penne dam was built. Outside specifically cultivated areas, the garden's current wetland vegetation is the result of natural post-dam colonization and succession. Its wild upland vegetation results mostly from

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A debate ...

efforts. Before the construction of the dam and the creation of the Riserva and the Orto Botanico, the landscape consisted of

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

with

woodlot A woodlot is a parcel of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products (such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, and pulpwood) as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower apprecia ...

strips. The area's native climax vegetation is dominated by holm oak. Geologically, the garden occupies part of a sedimentary basin of upper

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

to lower

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

s and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

s. Such stratigraphy is

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

-prone due to the differing behavior of shale-derived clays and sandstone-derived sand when saturated with water. The purpose of the Riserva and the Orto Botanico includes the maintenance of plant communities that help to anchor potentially-mobile sediments.

References

Official website

Friends organization website

Botanical gardens in Italy Gardens in Abruzzo 1989 establishments in Italy {{Italy-garden-stub

History

Organization

Natural history

See also

References