In a few years Clelia Durazzo collected a substantial number of plants, mostly ornamental species, as well as scientific texts and a herbarium rich with over 5000 specimens. The academic world of the 19th century, both national and international, rightly recognized her great merit for her scientific activity. The two 19th-century greenhouses, built by her and later renovated by her grandson Ignazio Alessandro Pallavicini, represent the most refined Genoese testimony of that botanical culture which characterized the Genoese scientific environment at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and still characterize the garden from an architectural point of view.
In 1928 the botanical garden, together with the palace and the romantic park, was donated to the Municipality of Genoa and was improperly used for many years. At the end of the ’70s, it was reevaluated and the botanical collections grew considerably. With the interventions from 2002-2004, the botanical garden was finally restored and today it displays collections of various compositions, some arranged in particular settings such as the desert, tropical forests, peat bogs, and swamps. In its magnificent monumental greenhouses, ferns, palms, and economically important tropical plants are cultivated such as cocoa, cola, cinnamon, banana, cassava, etc. Outside, educational collections provide visitors the opportunity to learn more deeply about aspects related to plant biology such as reproduction, leaf colors, fragrances, and poisons.
Collections of roses, camellias, bamboo, Mediterranean plants, offer the opportunity to get to know these groups of plants more closely. In the new greenhouse dedicated to giant water lilies, it is possible to admire the Victoria cruziana.
