page_title: Orto Botanico di Firenze
hierarchical_section_title: Orto Botanico di Firenze
caption_attribution_description: Giardino dei Semplici di Firenze (Orto Botanico di Firenze) - fountain. Florence, Italy.
context_page_description: The Orto Botanico di Firenze, also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, the "Garden of simples", is a botanical garden maintained by the University of Florence. It is located at Via Micheli, 3, Florence, Italy, and open weekday mornings.
  The garden was established on December 1, 1545, by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is Europe's third oldest, behind the Orto Botanico di Pisa and the Orto Botanico di Padova. It was first laid out by landscape gardener Niccolò Pericoli to a botanical system and plantings chosen by Luca Ghini, and rose to prominence under Cosimo III, with Pier Antonio Micheli as its director. As was typical of early European botanical gardens, its prime interest was in medicinal plants. However, as in 1753 the Società Botanica was formed, the garden's focus turned to "experimental agriculture" and its layout was revised accordingly. The garden grounds opened to the public in the mid-19th century, at about the same time that its glass houses were constructed.
  Today the garden contains some 9,000 plant specimens laid out in a roughly square site surrounded by walls, crossed by a grid of walkways, and with a central fountain.
context_section_description: The Orto Botanico di Firenze (2.3 hectares), also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, the "Garden of simples", is a botanical garden maintained by the University of Florence. It is located at Via Micheli, 3, Florence, Italy, and open weekday mornings. 
  The garden was established on December 1, 1545, by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is Europe's third oldest, behind the Orto Botanico di Pisa and the Orto Botanico di Padova. It was first laid out by landscape gardener Niccolò Pericoli to a botanical system and plantings chosen by Luca Ghini, and rose to prominence under Cosimo III, with Pier Antonio Micheli as its director. As was typical of early European botanical gardens, its prime interest was in medicinal plants. However, as in 1753 the Società Botanica was formed, the garden's focus turned to "experimental agriculture" and its layout was revised accordingly. The garden grounds opened to the public in the mid-19th century, at about the same time that its glass houses (1694 m²) were constructed.
  Today the garden contains some 9,000 plant specimens laid out in a roughly square site surrounded by walls, crossed by a grid of walkways, and with a central fountain. Some trees are quite old, including a Taxus baccata (1720) and Quercus suber (1805). Other species include:
  
    
  Acer negundo
  Aesculus hippocastanum
  Alnus cordata
  Araucaria imbricata
  Arbutus × andrachnoides
  Archontophoenix cunninghamii
  Calocedrus decurrens
  Cedrus atlantica
  Cedrus deodara
  Cedrus libani
  Celtis occidentalis
  Ceratozamia mexicana
  Cupressus funebris
  Cupressus goveniana
  Cupressus sempervirens
  Cupressus torulosa
  Cycas revoluta,
  Cydonia oblonga
  Digitalis lanata
  Digitalis purpurea
  Dionaea muscipula
  Dioon edule
  Dioon purpusii
  Diospyros lotus
  Encephalartos caffer
  Encephalartos ferox
  Encephalartos horridus
  Encephalartos munchii
  Encephalartos natalensis,
  Encephalartos trispinosus,
  Erithea armata,
  Fagus sylvatica,
  Fagus sylvatica pendula,
  Fraxinus excelsior,
  Ginkgo biloba,
  Juglans nigra,
  Lagerstroemia indica,
  Liriodendron tulipifera,
  Magnolia grandiflora,
  Melissa officinalis,
  Metasequoia glyptostroboides
  Ostrya carpinifolia
  Pinus halepensis sbsp brutia
  Pinus nigra sbsp laricio
  Pinus wallichiana
  Pistacia chinensis
  Pistacia terebinthus
  Platanus spp.
  Pterocarya stenoptera
  Quercus cerris,
  Quercus ilex,
  Quercus lusitanica
  Quercus macrolepsis
  Quercus robur
  Sequoia sempervirens
  Sophora japonica
  Taxodium distichum
  Taxodium mucronatum,
  Tilia platiphyllos,
  Torreya californica,
  Torreya nucifera,
  Torreya nucifera,
  Trachycarpus fortunei,
  Washingtonia filifera,
  Yucca australis,
  Zelkova carpinifolia,
  Zelkova crenata,
  Zelkova serrata
caption: Central fountain, with a copy of Verrocchio's Putto with a Dolphin
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