A botanical garden is a living organism. In almost five hundred years, this garden has grown thanks to subsequent additions that have safeguarded its history and botanical collections.

This is the biodiversity garden. Can you see how much water there is out there? It isn’t just for irrigation but also for maintaining proper humidity and keeping aquatic plants alive. The water comes from the artesian well that we mentioned earlier and also from a rainwater collection tank.

Opened in 2014, the greenhouses are a winding construction conceived as a large breathing leaf. The structure opens and closes to regulate temperature and humidity, moving for and with the plants. As if it were one of the 1,300 species at home here. This movement is automated and is operated by photovoltaic panels. So it uses the sun’s energy, just like the plants do.

These automated devices require a very sophisticated control system… and the most incredible thing is that the plants themselves manage it. When a plant has a lot of excess water, it releases steam. When it gets too much light, it folds in on itself. Special sensors detect changes in humidity, heat and movement, then they start countermeasures. For example they open or close the drapes to control the amount of light.

Cutting-edge technologies are needed to achieve all this. The covering is made of a material that weighs about 1% of glass, lets more light in, and is also self-cleaning and recyclable. Plasterwork is able to break down pollutants, of which there can be many in the warm, humid air of a greenhouse.

Time to go inside. Ah, you’ll see that each of the greenhouses reconstructs a biome, in other words a set of plants that live in a specific climatic zone. You’re about to go on a journey through all the Earth’s biomes: tropical and subtropical forests, the Mediterranean, temperate and arid climates.