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The Forest Botanical Garden of Abetone, in the Upper Sestaione Valley, between 4.199 and 4.291 feet above sea level, was created in 1987 by Doctor Federico Strada, a passionate lover of Alpine and Apennine flora.
The Forest Botanical Garden hosts species present in the typical areas of the high Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, and in particular of the Pistoia mountains, even if, due to its height, there are no varieties typical of the area, such as hornbeams and chestnuts. which would usually grow at lower altitudes.

The area is mainly covered by beech and silver fir woods, but there are also spruces as a testament to the relict populations preserved in the nearby Campolino Oriented Nature Reserve – namely, sycamore maple, laburnum, rowan, and several others. The tree layer also features herbaceous plants such as the white anemone, the violet geranium, the bird’s nest orchid, the white butterbur, even if in poor lighting conditions the undergrowth is practically absent. Above the upper limit of the arboreal vegetation (roughly around 5.249 ft) there are large patches of grass, blueberry heaths, and much poorer environments because subjected to more difficult living conditions – but inhabited by the martagon lily, the rare Gentiana purpurea, Aster alpinus, and Hypericum richeri.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)