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The Botanic Garden of the Malmerendi Museum of Natural Sciences was founded by members of the Faenza Speleological Group in 1981 on the previous Paganelli nursery, in which ornamental and exotic plants were cultivated.
Initially only local flora was planted, as it was intended as a fundamental part of the regional Museum collections.
Paolo Liverani curated the Garden until 2005, when he tragically died, but thanks to him many plants representing the Mediterranean flora were added to the Garden that now represents a valuable collection of the Romagna and Italian flora. The different provenance is indicated in the plant labels: green background means Romagna provenance, whereas exotic ones have white background.
The Garden is the “living” section of the Museum, its goal is not only to train the recognition of leaves, flowers, barks and plants, but also to promote knowledge of the local flora, its associations and its significant biological heritage. The Garden gives the visitor an insight into local natural habitats, from the Adriatic coast to the Apennine hills. In particular, many of the arboreal specimens hosted in the Garden are now rare in the territory due to the extensive human exploitation.
All specimens have been kept as natural as possible, limiting the pruning to the dry out or lower branches, in order to encourage the local fauna (bats, squirrels, birds, etc.) to inhabit the Garden.
The grass is mowed in several sections respecting spontaneous flowerings, thanks to this, orchids and geophytes, such as anemones and liliaceae, appeared in the Garden during the years.
Between the most important specimens we must include: two Lucombe oaks (Quercus crenata), evergreen trees with a thick bark, it is the rarest oak in our Apennine and is now protected by a regional law (number 2/77); an oriental hornbeam (Carpinus orientalis), a curious bushy tree with tiny leaves, originating from the Balkanic area, locally can be found only in relicts forests along the coast, and is disappeared from the hills; the European laddernut (Staphylea pinnata), an extremely rare tree living in the coolest corners of Apennine mountains; and the Florentine rabapple (Malus florentina), characterized by indented leaves and delicate white flowers, once common in sand hill oak forests, now can be only found in the Olmatello groves.
The Garden also includes local trees: ashes, limes, elms, poplars, oaks, and a number of exotic specimens such as pines and ornamental cedars, older than the Botanic Garden. Among these there is a huge sequoia (Sequoia sempervirens), originating from the marshy forests of North America, this tree is more than 20 meters high.
* Bassi S., 1985 - Il parco e le essenze arboree. In (Paganini Paganelli V., Bassi S., Costa G.P.):Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali. Il contenitore e il progetto museografico. Comune di Faenza: 49-50.
Bassi S., 1987 - Guida al Giardino Botanico. La parte vivente del Museo. Comune di Faenza. Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali. Pagg.1-27.
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