The Giardino Botanico Alpino alle Viotte di Monte Bondone (10 hectares) is an alpine 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...

 operated by the Museo tridentino di scienze naturali, and located in Viotte di Monte Bondone, southwest of Trento

Trento

Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, 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...

. It is open daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged.

The garden was established in 1938, damaged in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and renewed in 1958. Plants are grouped in beds by areas of origin, such as the Pyrenees

Pyrenees

The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

, the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, the Apennines, the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

, Carpathians, Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

, the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, and the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

. American genera include Arnica

Arnica

Arnica is a genus with about 30 perennial, herbaceous species, belonging to the sunflower family . The genus name Arnica may be derived from the Greek arna, "lamb", in reference to the soft, hairy leaves....

, Eriophyllum

Eriophyllum

Eriophyllum, commonly known as the woolly sunflower, is a genus of annual or herbaceous perennial plant native to western North America, with a concentration of narrow endemics in the California Floristic Province....

, Lewisia

Lewisia

Lewisia is a plant genus, named for Meriwether Lewis.Species include: * Lewisia brachycalyx Engelm. ex A.Gray: USA , Mexico * Lewisia cantelovii J.T.Howell: USA...

, Liatris

Liatris

Liatris is a genus of ornamental plants in the Asteraceae family, native to North America, Mexico, and the Bahamas. These plants are used as a popular summer flowers for bouquets.They are perennials, surviving the winter in the form of corms....

, Phlox

Phlox

Phlox is a genus of 67 species of perennial and annual plants found mostly in North America in diverse habitats from alpine tundra to open woodland and prairie. Some flower in spring, others in summer and autumn....

, Penstemon

Penstemon

Penstemon , Beard-tongue, is a large genus of North American and East Asian plants traditionally placed in the Scrophulariaceae family. Due to new genetic research, it has now been placed in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae...

, and Silphium

Silphium

Silphium was a plant that was used in classical antiquity as a rich seasoning and as a medicine. It was the essential item of trade from the ancient North African city of Cyrene, and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore a picture of the plant...

; Himalayan genera include Androsace

Androsace

Androsace is the second largest genus in the Primulaceae. It is a predominantly Arctic-alpine genus with many species in the Himalayas , the mountains of central Asia, the Caucasus, and the southern and central European mountain systems, particularly the Alps and the Pyrenees.Recent molecular...

, Gentiana, Incarvillea

Incarvillea

Incarvillea is a genus of 16 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to central and eastern Asia, with most of the species growing at high altitudes in the Himalaya and Tibet. The most familiar species is Incarvillea delavayi, a garden plant commonly known as "hardy gloxinia"...

, Leontopodium

Leontopodium

Leontopodium is a genus of plants in the daisy family, which includes edelweiss , a well-known plant from the mountains of Europe. The term edelweiss can, more rarely, refer to other members of the genus...

, Meconopsis

Meconopsis

Meconopsis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Papaveraceae. The species have attractive flowers and have two distinct ranges. A single species, Meconopsis cambrica , is indigenous to England, Wales, Ireland, and the fringes of Western Europe. The other 40 or so species are found in the...

, Potentilla

Potentilla

Potentilla is the genus of typical cinquefoils, containing about 500 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbs in the rose family Rosaceae. They are generally Holarctic in distribution, though some may even be found in montane biomes of the New Guinea Highlands...

, and Veronica

Veronica (plant)

Veronica is the largest genus in the flowering plant family Plantaginaceae, with about 500 species; it was formerly classified in the family Scrophulariaceae...

.

Species of particular interest include Artemisia petrosa, Daphne petraea, Ephedra helvetica, Fritillaria tubaeformis, Linaria tonzigi, Paederota bonarota, Rhizobotrya alpina, Sanguisorba dodecandra, Saxifraga arachnoidea, Saxifraga tombeanensis, Scabiosa vestina, Silene elisabethae, and Viola dubyana. The garden also includes a nature trail (1000 meters) through indigenous vegetation, including Drosera rotundifolia

Drosera rotundifolia

Drosera rotundifolia is a species of sundew, a carnivorous plant often found in bogs, marshes and fens...

and Pinguicula vulgaris

Pinguicula vulgaris

Pinguicula vulgaris, the Common butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous plant in the Lentibulariaceae family. It grows to a height of 3–16 cm, and is topped with a purple, and occasionally white, flower that is 15 mm or longer, and shaped like a funnel. This butterwort grows in damp...

.