Established in 1768 by the will of the abbot Guatteri Giambattista (1739-1793), the Botanical Garden has its roots in the 1600s, a period in which there was at Parma a "Garden of Simple", founded by Ranuccio Farnese and part of the Faculty of medicine according to the custom of the time, where he cultivated medicinal herbs (the "simple" medicines were taken from the plant kingdom). The construction of the greenhouses was designed by architect Ennemond Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801) and completed in 1793. Later, on the initiative of G. Passerini, who was director from 1843 to 1893, the original structure was enlarged with three other buildings: the School of Botany, in which the observations were performed under the microscope, the hothouse and the seedbed. The environment collects, protects and preserves the native flora that offers the visitor the sense of a nature hike in the area. You can also see collections of exotic species, while for their particular interest is the report xylotheque and herbaria storici.Tra the many plants present should be mentioned that the Ginkgo biloba planted in 1791, an elm tree adorned, imposing a dawn redwood glyptostroboides and collections succulents, roses, water plants, of insectivorous, bonsai native and violets. At the School of Botany preserved historical herbaria GB Casapini (1722) and Jan G. (1820), a collection of wood specimens, a pollinoteca comprising several specimens of fossil pollen from the Tertiary and Quaternary, and a small collection of phyllites collected in 1960.