Orto Botanico is a botanical garden run by the Sapienza University in Rome. The garden was created in 1883 and was erected on the slope of the Janiculum Hill overlooking the 17th-century Corsini Palace, which in 1659-1689 was the residence of Queen Christina and is now the seat of Accademia dei Lincei. Part of the current botanical garden was once a private Corsini garden. After the palace became the property of the Italian state, they were combined with the existing papal gardens to create the current layout.
Today, the garden has more than 3,000 species of plants, including a Japanese garden, bamboo groves and Giardino dei Semplici - a sector with more than 300 species of medicinal plants. Also noteworthy are the Himalayan cedar, dasylirion glaucophyllum, dasylirion acrotrichum, crested erythrin and Eastern ambergris. There are several greenhouses containing a significant collection of cacti, bonsai trees, carnivorous plants and tropical plants, including euphorbia and orchids.
