Giardino Botanico Carsiana, botanical garden in Italy

The Giardino Botanico Carsiana occupies a dolina, a natural depression, in the municipality of Sgonico, 18 km from Trieste. Its 5,000 m² hold about 600 native Karst species arranged by habitat rather than by botanical taxonomy: karst scrub, scree, karst woodland, heathland, coastal cliffs, dolina woodland, mountain karst, water bodies, a karst well and a mown meadow.

Gianfranco Gioitti, Stanislao Budin and Livio Poldini founded the garden in 1964; Gioitti bought and provided the land and curated it for over 40 years as Horti Praefectus. Fabrizio Martini and Eliseo Osualdini enriched its flora, with early help from Giovanni Kocman of Sgonico. The founders published its history with Martini in three editions (1980, 1984, 1988). The Province of Trieste bought the property in 2002, and management passed to the Friuli Venezia Giulia region on 1 July 2016.

The garden's historic emblem is Paeonia officinalis; since 2019 its official logo has been Centaurea rupestris, both Karst plants. The founders published the garden's history and functions with Fabrizio Martini in three editions (1980, 1984, 1988), titled "Carsiana Giardino Botanico Introduzione alla flora e alla vegetazione del Carso".

The garden lies in a dolina, a karst depression, along the provincial road between Sgonico and Gabrovizza, about 18 km from Trieste. Paths follow the slopes of the depression, so expect uneven ground rather than level walkways. It is open from 21 March to the second Sunday of October; the Italian source gives free entry, while the English source mentions a fee, so check before setting out.

The garden was laid out in a dolina, a karst depression whose slopes hold every main landform of the Trieste Karst, so the planting follows geology rather than taxonomy. Since 2023 two dry-stone structures, a hiška and a wall, built without mortar by craftsman Vojko Ražem, stand at the bottom of the dolina.