70 years after its foundation the Friulian botanical garden has become the responsibility of the Friulian Museum of Natural History. Currently the various sectors (habitats) of the garden are being set up in order to make them usable especially to schools. The first habitats already prepared are the stable meadow and the bog.
The functions of the Friuli Botanical Garden are:
- scientific dissemination and support to schools
- conservation of rare species ex situ
- scientific research.
No less important is the role of this structure as a meeting point and venue for cultural activities in the broad sense, such as conferences, musical concerts, etc.
In the high Friulian plain and in the morainic areas, characterized by gravelly soils poor in nutrients, lean prairies may form, rightly called magredi. Two fundamental types can be distinguished: primitive and evolved magredi. The primitive Magredi are presented as discontinuous prairies, where a steppe vegetation is observed. The evolved magredi or stable meadows are characterized, instead, by a greater content of nutrients in the soil and a homogenous and continuous grassy cotic. They are among the Friuli habitats richest in plant species and are maintained also thanks to mowing and grazing.
Where the high plain meets the low plain a band of resurgences forms due to variations in the permeability of the soil that favor the rise of groundwater. Here remain some wetlands of high naturalistic value, although reduced due to reclamation, very rich in rare plant species. The vegetation of these wetlands varies depending on the ecological conditions, which are always characterized by high water availability. It ranges from peat bog areas dominated by Schoenus nigricans, where the endemic stand out Armeria helodes and Erucastrum palustre, to hygrophilous cariceti in marshy areas with Carex elata up to the wet prairies at Molinia caerulea and to the riparian hedges.
The field cultivated with monococcum spelt (Triticum monococcum) is an example of what a cereal field must have been during the Neolithic (about 7000 years ago). These plants today are called archeophytes, with reference to their ancient introduction into our territory from the Middle East during the spread of agriculture. These were extensive crops, where the presence of "weeds" was constant. These herbaceous plants are annual, with a vegetative cycle similar to crops and therefore normally spread every year during new sowings. In our fields they have often disappeared because of the use of pesticides. We can observe for example Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower) e Agrostemma githago (Common Gittaione).
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22-32, 33100 Udine
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