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This botanical garden is on the southern slope of the highest volcano in Europe, inside the “Giovanni Saletti” forest property – it’s actually inside the Etna Natural Park, at an altitude between 5.577 and 5.741 ft and spread over 25 acres.

The name “Nuova Gussonea” was chosen to honour the memory of Giovanni Gussone, an acclaimed scholar of the Sicilian flora, as well as to remember the botany professor Fridiano Cavara, who established a previous and short-lived garden on the very southern slope of the Etna Volcano.
In 1979, the current green facility was eventually created, thanks to a collaboration between the General Directorate of Forests of the Sicilian Region and the University of Catania; the new botanical garden was thus created study, research, preserve and disseminate a wealth of information about the local flora – “Nuova Gussonea” botanical garden was officially opened in 1981.

The garden can be accessed on a driveway leading to Valerio Giacomini Refuge; it stretches on some 25 acres, covered by the typical Mediterranean scrub, including the local aromatic plants.
The garden layout is a painstakingly arranged replica of all the very micro-climates and peculiar environments found all over the Volcano, thus specifically representing every single plant species growing in its very ideal and endemic habitat. Even the different altitudes have been re-created inside these miniature replicas of the original natural habitats. Needless to say, this striking and most unique feature makes the botanical garden a vital facility for educational and scientific purposes.

The garden hosts only two specific collections and several plant aggregations from the Etna area, including Etna chamomile, and the endemic Anthemis aetnensis.
There is also a nursery with more than 3500 pots, about 200 flower beds, woodland plants of the local territory, a dendrology collection, several lava formations, experimental flower beds, and a lava cave.

THE FLORA

This botanical garden features large expanses of Sicilian Astragaletum, and the bottom sections of some Austrian pines (Laricio Pinus nigra); there is also a fern species from Alpine regions, which is quite rare on Mount Etna: Asplenium septidentale, also known as “Manuzza” in Sicilian dialect.

The garden is divided into several sectors such as flower beds, the nursery, an extensive lava flow that hosts pioneer vegetation, wooded areas (with Betula aetnensis, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus cerris, Quercus pubescens, Populus tremula, and Quercus ilex), and a rocky cave made of lava used to study the adaptations of plants to the lack of sunlight.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)