The collections of succulent plants and the reconstruction of arid environments of the Botanical Garden show life and adaptations in the hot deserts.
The rocks and microorganisms isolated from them and stored in the Culture Collection of Fungi From Extreme Environments (CCFEE) of the Mycological section of the National Antarctic Museum, show life and adaptations in polar deserts.
The Botanical Garden’s collection of succulent plants, which started as a small group of plants coming from the Botanical Garden of Palermo planted in 1991, is divided into several distinct sections based on the type of care and on the location: the Desert, the Rocky Ridge, the Greenhouse of the Patriarchs, and the Astolfi Greenhouse. The species were chosen based on their conservationist value and the quality of the specimen.
Succulents plants cultivated in the field
The Desert collection sits atop a travertine platform, with outcrops of bedrock, stones, and boulders that make the scenery striking, and that abruptly stop in proximity of a Rocky Ridge. These areas house the most consistent part of the succulent collection, amounting to several hundreds of specimens. In the Desert, the plants are subdivided by the geographical area of origin (American, African, or European Desert) and arranged in a reconstruction of their “natural” environment. The cultivation of xerophilous plants in this particular environment has permitted to test their capacity of acclimatization.
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Agave asperrima Jacobi - |
Dasylirion serratifolium (Schult.) Zucc. - |
Corynopuntia moelleri (A. Berger) F.M. Knuth - |
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Agave parrasana Berger - (Agavaceae) 
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Agave victoriae-reginae T. Moore (Agavaceae) 
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Aloe maculata All. -(Aloaceae)
Euphorbia rigida M.Bieb. - (Euphorbiaceae)
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Pelecyphora aselliformis Ehrenb. |
Agave victoriae-reginae T. Moore |
Turbinicarpus klinkerianus Backeb. & H.Jacobsen |
Succulents Cultivated in a Protected EnvironmentA few specimens are cultivated in greenhouses, as they would not endure the climate of the territory: the Greenhouse of the Patriarchs and the Astolfi Greenhouse. The first, several meters tall, houses plants of a bigger size and of particular value, such as, for example, two specimens of Aloe dichotoma Masson. that were carried from Namibia by Professor Angelo Rambelli, the founder and first Director of the Botanical Garden, during a botanical expedition. The Astolfi Greenhouse houses a collection of samples representative of the main succulent families, with the specimens grouped by family and arranged in harmonious succession in order to achieve a good perspective view.
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Aloe dichotoma Masson (Aloaceae)
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Agave attenuata Salm-Dick
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Echinocactus grusonii Hildm.
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The museum section was officially founded in 2006. It consists of a collection of fossils that tell the past history of the continent, a large collection of rocks colonized by endolithic communities and a culture collection where the microfungi isolated from these rocks are maintained.
The Collection of Fossils
Antarctica has had a long and complex history. Until about 200 million years ago the continent was in a subtropical location with a warm and humid climate, covered of vegetation and populated by animals. Plants species, now extinct, formed forests and there were also large dinosaurs. The continental drift pushed the Antarctic to the South Pole, reached about 60 million years ago; the dramatic cooling caused the extinction of complex organisms and microorganisms became the only and dominant life forms of the continent. Fossil traces of this past history are quite frequent. The collection of fossils in the museum contains fossilized seabed where there are bioturbation (NCTN 01324569), i.e. fossil traces of tunnels dug by invertebrates lived in the Devonian period between 370 and 400 million years ago. Fossilized Glossopteris (NCTN 01324568), (pteridosperms) extinct seed-ferns dating back some 300 million years ago are preserved in the Museum too. There are also fossils of Nothofagus (NCTN 01324567), a kind of beech still existing in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Collection of Colonized Rocks
The collection includes a wide selection of colonized rocks: granite, quartz, volcanic rocks and, above all, sandstones. A sandstone specimen colonized by cryptoendolithic community is preserved in the exhibition area of the Museum System of the University (SMA). All the others, about 200 kg, are stored frozen at - 20 °C to preserve the microorganisms that may continue to be isolated and studied in the future.
The Culture Collection (
Culture Collection of Fungi From Extreme Environments, CCFEE
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The culture collection includes nearly 1000 fungal strains isolated from rocks from extreme environments around the world, but especially from Antarctica. These are unique organisms evolved in almost complete genetic and geographic isolation for millions of years. Many of these represent new taxa. The strains preserved in collections, with data collection, are cataloged in an excel file. The new species, and in some cases new genera, described and preserved in CCFEE are here repoted:
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