Festival of trees: the Botanical Garden of the University of Sassari presented

The sun crowned an intense day for the University of Sassari, which presented its botanical garden and celebrated the Festival of Trees together with numerous school groups from Sassari and the surrounding area.

The work began in room 2 of the imposing structure in via Piandanna. Speakers included the Magnificent Rector Gavino Mariotti, the Mayor of the city of Sassari, Giuseppe Mascia, the Director of the Botanical Garden, Giuseppe Brundu, Ignazio Floris, Director of the Agriculture Department, Giovanni Tesei of the Forestry and Environmental Surveillance Corps of the Sardinia Region, Ignazio Camarda, scientific representative of the Botanical Garden, Luisa Carta, Curator of the Botanical Garden of the University.

Immediately afterwards outside the building, in the botanical garden area, Serenella Medici (Department of Chemical, Mathematical and Natural Physics) and Ludmilla Ribeiro Roder, (Department of Agriculture) coordinated the planting of trees, one for each boy and girl present; with great enthusiasm, the little gardeners (and not only them) planted the plants marked with their name, following the instructions of the experts from the University of Sassari and the Forestas Agency.

After thanking the previous rectors who had laid the foundations for the creation of the Botanical Garden (Palmieri, Maida and Mastino), Gavino Mariotti announced that the large spaces in via Piandanna will host the Department of Biomedical Sciences. Good news from an educational point of view, but also good news for Sassari: "We thank the Forestry Authority with which we signed an agreement with the aim of organizing and starting the Botanical Garden, a question of civilization and culture. This is one of the main access gates to the city", underlined the Magnificent together with the mayor.

As director Brundu highlighted, “every inhabitant of the earth today can count on around 4-500 trees, but at the current rate of deforestation, whereby we lose 10 thousand hectares of greenery every year, at the end of the century we will only have 200 trees each. The tree festival must make us reflect on this, this is what law 10 of 2013 which established this anniversary is for."

Today's event, included in the SHARPER 2024 calendar, was made possible by the collaboration of UNISS-Office of the Third Mission and Territory with the FoReSTAS Agency and the Italian Botanical Society, Sardinian section.

The Botanical Garden of the University of Sassari, in the "Area of ​​systematic and thematic collections", currently extends for approximately 2.5 hectares. Of these, 1.40 are dedicated to 121 thematic flowerbeds in which the plants are placed according to a bio-systematic order with the aim of conserving the biodiversity of the Sardinian flora and beyond. You can observe plants belonging to many families such as the Meliaceae and the more well-known Lamiaceae which include perfume herbs (lavender, lemon balm, mint, sage...). There are also 14 tanks for aquatic plants. Next to the flowerbeds, the perfectly preserved remains of a Roman aqueduct are visible.

The area pertaining to the university structure in via Piandanna extends over a further 4.5 hectares which will include the botanical park, a green space that can be used by students, citizens and visitors. The entire area is crossed by a path suitable for people with reduced mobility.
Botanical gardens and gardens play an essential role in the promotion and dissemination of botanical sciences and in particular in research, conservation, teaching and dissemination relating to biodiversity.

The Botanical Garden project, started some time ago by the University of Sassari, today begins to take concrete shape following these important directives.
The Botanical Garden in its entirety will be inaugurated in 2025.

The goal is to host all 2700 spontaneous species of Sardinian flora. It is estimated that planting of trees, shrubs and grasses will be complete in 2027.