There are between 14,000 and 15,000 dolines in the Classic Karst area. Their formations, types, diameters and depths have been studied, along with their ecology.
Until a few years ago, sinkholes also played an important role in the lives of the Karst people. Let us take a journey together from prehistory to the recent past, between nature and human uses, along the doline paths of the Carsiana Botanical Garden.
It doesn't matter whether you have a large park or a simple balcony! You could still create a valuable place for wildlife: butterflies, dragonflies, birds and other organisms could benefit from simple tricks and shrewdness that you can easily implement thanks to the advice of Wildlife gardening expert Paul Tout. We look forward to a walk in Carsiana in which we will discover how conscious and careful gardening can ensure aesthetic pleasantness and harmony with nature.
Citrus fruits, geraniums, and other plants that live in our gardens need a lot of care to get through the winter, and we often have to place them in a place sheltered from the cold to make them survive the colder temperatures. But what happens in nature? What strategies are woodland plants able to put into play? We will discover the incredible struggle for survival that the native species of the Karst consume at the cellular level, perfectly adapted to temperatures well below 0°C, and how climate change can disrupt this perfect mechanism developed over centuries.
At a time when nature is bare of the green of its leaves and what accompanies our gaze during a walk in the garden are the beautiful karst forms that water has modelled, Carsiana invites you on a journey into the geological past of the dolina to discover the geodiversity of the botanical garden and its link with biodiversity, with an interesting in-depth look at the latest research on limestone rocks, geological palaeoenvironments and microfossils.
With the approach of the Christmas holidays and their atmosphere full of meanings, there is no shortage of those conveyed by our relationship with the plant kingdom.
Typical is the fir tree, the classic Christmas tree, but it is not alone: there are many plants linked to this festivity that, with their ritual meanings and properties, once again tell us ancient stories, reminding us that even in the cold, dark winter there are seeds of hope and rebirth.
In warm weather it is relatively easy to determine tree species using leaf, flower and fruit characteristics. But in winter, when many species have now lost their foliage, it is much more complex to be able to recognize which plant it is. By following the expert botanist Pierpaolo Merluzzi, with a careful eye you will be able to see the characters linked to the shape and arrangement of the buds, but also to analyze the bark and the shape of the plant itself to give it a name.