The Orto Botanico di Firenze (2.3 hectares), also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, the "Garden of simples", is a botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 maintained by the University of Florence

University of Florence

The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...

. It is located at Via Micheli, 3, Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and open weekday mornings. An admission fee is charged.

The garden was established on December 1, 1545, by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Cosimo I de' Medici was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574, reigning as the first Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569.-Biography:...

, and is Europe's third oldest, behind the Orto Botanico di Pisa

Orto botanico di Pisa

The Orto botanico di Pisa, also known as the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pisa, is a botanical garden operated by the University of Pisa, and located at via Luca Ghini 5, Pisa, Italy...

 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

Luca Ghini

Luca Ghini was an Italian physician and botanist, notable as the creator of the first recorded herbarium, as well as the first botanical garden in Europe....

, and rose to prominence under Cosimo III

Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Cosimo III de' Medici was the penultimate Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinando II. Cosimo's 53-year long reign, the longest in Tuscan history, was marked by a series of ultra-reactionary laws which regulated prostitution and...

, with Pier Antonio Micheli

Pier Antonio Micheli

Pier Antonio Micheli was a noted Italian botanist, professor of botany in Pisa, curator of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, author of Nova plantarum genera iuxta Tournefortii methodum disposita...

 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

Taxus baccata

Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...

(1720) and Quercus suber (1805). Other species include

Acer negundo

Acer negundo

Acer negundo is a species of maple native to North America. Box Elder, Boxelder Maple, and Maple Ash are its most common names in the United States...

,
Aesculus hippocastanum,
Alnus cordata,
Araucaria imbricata,
Arbutus × andrachnoides

Arbutus

Arbutus is a genus of at least 14 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, and North America.-Description:...

,
Archontophoenix cunninghamii,
Calocedrus decurrens

Calocedrus decurrens

Calocedrus decurrens is a species of conifer native to western North America, with the bulk of the range in the United States, from central western Oregon through most of California and the extreme west of Nevada, and also a short distance into northwest Mexico in northern Baja California...

,
Cedrus atlantica,
Cedrus deodara,
Cedrus libani,
Celtis occidentalis

Celtis occidentalis

Celtis occidentalis, commonly known as the Common hackberry, is a medium-size deciduous tree native to North America. It is also known as the nettletree, beaverwood, northern hackberry, and American hackberry...

,
Ceratozamia mexicana

Ceratozamia mexicana

Ceratozamia mexicana is a species of plant in the Zamiaceae family. It is endemic to Mexico. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montanes. It is threatened by habitat loss.-Source:...

,
Cupressus funebris

Cupressus funebris

Cupressus funebris is a species of cypress native to southwestern and central China.-Description:Cupressus funebris is a medium-sized coniferous tree growing to 20-35 m tall, with a trunk up to 2 m diameter...

,
Cupressus goveniana

Cupressus goveniana

Cupressus goveniana is a species of cypress endemic to coastal California in the United States, where it is found in small, scattered populations, not in large forests.-Description:...

,
Cupressus sempervirens

Cupressus sempervirens

Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean Cypress is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southeast Greece , southern Turkey, Cyprus, Northern Egypt, western Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Malta, Italy, western Jordan, and also a disjunct population in...

,
Cupressus torulosa

Cupressus torulosa

Cupressus torulosa, known as the Himalayan cypress, is a species of cypress in southern Asia.-Distribution:The Himalayan cypress is an evergreen conifer tree species is found in the Himalaya from . It is also found on limestone terrain in Sichuan China and in Vietnam.-See also:*Cupressus*Index:...

,
Cycas revoluta

Cycas revoluta

Cycas revoluta , is a plant native to southern Japan. Though often known by the common name of king sago palm, or just sago palm, it is not a palm at all, but a cycad.-Description:...

,
Cydonia oblonga,
Digitalis lanata

Digitalis lanata

Digitalis lanata is a species of foxglove that is part of the Plantaginaceae family. It gets its name due to the texture of the leaves. Digitalis lanata, like some other foxglove species, is highly toxic in all parts of the plant...

,
Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis purpurea

Digitalis purpurea , is a flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae , native to most of Europe.-Description:...

,
Dionaea muscipula,
Dioon edule

Dioon edule

Dioon edule is a cycad native to Mexico, also known as palma de la Virgen.Two subspecies are known*Dioon edule subsp. angustifolium*Dioon edule subsp. edule- Dioon Edule var. Edule :...

,
Dioon purpusii

Dioon purpusii

Dioon purpusii is a cycad tree endemic to a very small region in Mexico .-Name:The epithet purpusii, chosen by Joseph Nelson Rose, is an homage to one of Rose's contemporaries, colleague Carl Albert Purpus Dioon purpusii (Purpus' cycad) is a cycad tree endemic to a very small region in Mexico...

,
Diospyros lotus,
Encephalartos caffer

Encephalartos caffer

Eastern Cape dwarf cycad is a rare cycad from the genus Encephalartos. It typically has an underground stem, with a small portion on top, the stem is only very rarely branched and may be as much as 40 cm long. Emerging from the top are long, pinnate, dark green leaves up to long...

,
Encephalartos ferox

Encephalartos ferox

Encephalartos ferox, a member of the family Zamiaceae, is a small cycad with 35 cm wide subterranean trunk. It gets its name from the Latin word ferocious, likely from the spine-tipped lobes on the leaves of the plant. It is found naturally on the south-eastern coast of Africa where it has...

,
Encephalartos horridus

Encephalartos horridus

The Eastern Cape Blue Cycad is a small, low-growing cycad up to 0.9m high and 0.9m wide. It is a native of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and found in arid shrublands, most commonly on ridges and slopes with shallow soils...

,
Encephalartos munchii,
Encephalartos natalensis,
Encephalartos trispinosus,
Erithea armata,
Fagus sylvatica,
Fagus sylvatica pendula,
Fraxinus excelsior,
Ginkgo biloba,
Juglans nigra,
Lagerstroemia indica

Lagerstroemia indica

Lagerstroemia indica is a species in the genus Lagerstroemia in the family Lythraceae.From China, Korea and Japan, Lagerstroemia indica is an often multistemmed, deciduous tree with a wide spreading, flat topped, open habit when mature.The bark is a prominent feature being smooth, pinkinsh-gray...

,
Liriodendron tulipifera

Liriodendron tulipifera

Liriodendron tulipifera, commonly known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tuliptree, tulip poplar or yellow poplar, is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron, and the tallest eastern hardwood...

,
Magnolia grandiflora,
Melissa officinalis,
Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, critically endangered deciduous conifer tree, sole living species of the genus Metasequoia, and one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. It is native to the Sichuan-Hubei region of China...

,
Ostrya carpinifolia

Ostrya carpinifolia

Ostrya carpinifolia, the Hop Hornbeam, is a tree in genus Ostrya, in the family Betulaceae, native to Europe.-Distribution:Ostrya carpinifolia is found in Italy, France, Austria, Slovenia, Greece, the Balkans, southern Switzerland and Anatolia.It is found in the medium elevations, in southern...

,
Pinus halepensis sbsp brutia,
Pinus nigra sbsp laricio,
Pinus wallichiana,
Pistacia chinensis,
Pistacia terebinthus,
Platanus spp.

Platanus

Platanus is a small genus of trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae....

,
Pterocarya stenoptera

Pterocarya stenoptera

Pterocarya stenoptera is a small-winged wingnut tree of the Juglandaceae family. It is originally from Southeast China.- Description :...

,
Quercus cerris,
Quercus ilex,
Quercus lusitanica

Quercus lusitanica

Quercus lusitanica, commonly known as Gall Oak, Lusitanian Oak, or Dyer's Oak, is a species of oak native to Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. Q. lusitanica is the source of commercial nutgalls. These galls are produced by the infection from the insect Cynips gallae tinctoriae...

,
Quercus macrolepsis,
Quercus robur,
Sequoia sempervirens,
Sophora japonica,
Taxodium distichum

Taxodium distichum

Taxodium distichum is a species of conifer native to the southeastern United States.-Characteristics:...

,
Taxodium mucronatum

Taxodium mucronatum

Taxodium mucronatum, also known as Montezuma Cypress, Sabino, or Ahuehuete is a species of Taxodium native to much of Mexico , and also the Rio Grande Valley in southernmost Texas, USA as well as Huehuetenango Department in Guatemala...

,
Tilia platiphyllos,
Torreya californica

Torreya californica

Torreya californica is species of conifer endemic to California, occurring in the Pacific Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada...

,
Torreya nucifera

Torreya nucifera

Torreya nucifera is a slow-growing, coniferous tree native to southern Japan and to South Korea's Jeju Island. It is also called ' or Japanese nutmeg-yew.-Description:It grows to 15-25 m tall with a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter...

,
Torreya nucifera

Torreya nucifera

Torreya nucifera is a slow-growing, coniferous tree native to southern Japan and to South Korea's Jeju Island. It is also called ' or Japanese nutmeg-yew.-Description:It grows to 15-25 m tall with a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter...

,
Trachycarpus fortunei

Trachycarpus fortunei

Trachycarpus fortunei is a palm native to central China , south to northern Burma. It is a fan palm Trachycarpus fortunei (Chusan Palm, Windmill Palm or Chinese Windmill Palm; syn. Chamaerops fortunei Hook., T. wagnerianus Becc.) is a palm native to central China (Hubei southwards), south to...

,
Washingtonia filifera

Washingtonia filifera

Washingtonia filifera , with the common names California Fan Palm , Desert Fan Palm, Cotton palm, and Arizona Fan Palm. It is a palm native to southwestern North America between an elevation range of , at seeps, desert bajadas, and springs where underground water is continuously available...

,
Yucca australis,
Zelkova carpinifolia

Zelkova carpinifolia

Zelkova carpinifolia is a species of Zelkova, native to the Caucasus, Kaçkar, and Alborz mountains in the extreme southeast of Europe and southwest Asia....

,
Zelkova crenata,
Zelkova serrata

Zelkova serrata

Zelkova serrata is a species of Zelkova native to Japan, Korea, eastern China, and Taiwan. It is often grown as an ornamental tree, and used in bonsai.-Description:...