At the southern end of the Rosolina Mare shoreline, where the beach gives way to the Caleri lagoon, lies the Giardino Botanico Litoraneo del Veneto, the Veneto’s coastal botanical garden. It covers some 44 hectares. It is not a garden of flowerbeds. It is a stretch of coast left as it is, crossed by paths.
It was created by the Regione del Veneto in 1990 to conserve a natural environment of considerable scientific interest. The area was later declared a Site of Community Importance under EU rules and became part of the Po Delta Regional Park.
From sand to woodland
The garden reads like a cross-section of the coast. Near the sea grow the pioneer species of loose sand, such as sea rocket and sea holly. On the first, still unstable dunes come sand couch grass and sea bindweed. On the crests, tufts of marram grass break the wind and trap the sand: they are what makes the dunes grow.
Further back the dunes settle. Juniper and phillyrea appear, the first sign of a scrub close to Mediterranean maquis. Where the water table rises to the surface, in the hollows between the dunes, grow bulrushes, great fen-sedge and common reed.
A young pine wood
The wood of maritime and stone pines is not old. It comes from planting carried out in the 1940s and 1950s. Over time the undergrowth has filled, on its own, with rare orchids of the genera Cephalanthera, Ophrys and Orchis. The holm oak shows a natural trend towards Mediterranean woodland. To the west, by contrast, an area rich in elms recalls the forests of the plain.
The path across the salt marsh
Since 1992 a fitted trail has crossed the brackish areas near the lagoon. It runs over the barene, flat clay islets covered with salt-tolerant plants. Small footbridges cross the channels. If the water is clear, crabs, young fish and meadows of dwarf eelgrass (Zostera noltii) can be seen on the bottom. Glasswort, seablite and saltwort grow along the edges. The “halophile path”, named after these salt-loving plants, ends on the dunes to the south-east, where the plants of salt mix with those of sand.
There are three routes. A short one, mostly in the pine wood. An intermediate one, covering every habitat except the brackish zone. A long one, which includes that too. In spring the wild orchids bloom. At other times of the year sea lavender (Limonium) tints the landscape purple.
