Giardino Botanico di Oropa

The Giardino Botanico di Oropa is a nature preserve and botanical garden located at an altitude of 1200 meters in Oropa, a town about 12 kilometers northwest of Biella, Piedmont, Italy. It is open daily except Mondays in the warmer months.

The garden covers several acres either side of the Torrente Oropa, and is managed by the World Wide Fund for Nature for Biella, primarily as a nature preserve, but also with mountain plants from around the world. The majority of the site is indigenous beech woodlands with many herbaceous perennials and small shrubs, including blueberry and rhododendron. The garden also contains lichens and mosses, as well as "Campanula barbata", "Campanula excisa Schleicher" (the garden's symbol), "Gentiana purpurea", "Lilium martagon", "Lonicera nigra", "Prenanthes purpurea", and "Rosa pendulina".

See also

* List of botanical gardens in Italy

References

* [http://www.gboropa.it Giardino Botanico di Oropa (Italian)]
* [http://www.biellacitta.com/oropa/giardino.html Biella municipal article (Italian)]
* [http://www.giardinaggio.it/unagitaa/Oropa/Oropa.asp Giardinaggio article (Italian)]