Villa Hanbury

Close to the Italian village of La Mortola, but only about 3kms from the border with France, Villa Hanbury has spectacular gardens cascading down to the Mediterranean sea. These 'Giardini Botanici Hanbury' were created by their English owners between 1867 and 1960, when they were sold to the Italian state. Now under the care of the University of Genoa they are being restored to their former glory. With a huge range of plants from round the world, this is a 'must see' destination for anyone interested in gardens, plants and botany!

Several years ago I arrived at these gardens only to discover that in Winter they are shut one day a week!
In August 2002, I at last had another chance. I was staying in Monaco, took the train to Menton Garavan and then walked for about 45 minutes to reach the Villa, crossing the French/Italian border on the way.

For me, the highlight of this garden was the excellent mature specimen of Microcitrus australis, the Australian Round Lime. This is certainly the oldest Microcitrus in Europe, and probably the only outdoor fruiting plant that is publically accessible.
The tree is healthy, about 6m high and wide, and has six multiple trunks each about 15-20cms in diameter. It was fruiting prolifically, although in August not yet ripe.
Leaves on this tree were entirely the mature form. I could find none of the juvenile, linear shape produced by seedlings.
Click here for Microcitrus leaf information.

The 'Round Lime' fruits, about 2.5cms (1") across were more knobbly than I had expected. In fact they looked remarkably similar to small fruits of Citrus hystrix, the Thai or Kaffir Lime.
When squeezed the peel exuded a milky fluid which was very sticky and left the fruit coated with a shiny, sticky film - and difficult to remove from the fingers! I don't recall reading anything about this, but will check up.

For more information about the gardens, visit the Giardini Botanici Hanbury web-site.
Also take a look at the Friends of The Hanbury Botanic Gardens.
For historical details of citrus varieties in the gardens see Hortus Mortolensis

The gardens also have an extensive citrus collection of many old plants plus some newer additions. Most were labelled, but specific variety names were often absent - probably they are unnamed cultivars or seedlings. There were numerous examples of Citrus maxima (pummelo or shaddock) and the bitter orange, C. aurantium. Several C. lumia 'Pera del Commendatore' were also noted.
The citrus trees were all recently sprayed with a chemical that had left a blue deposit on leaves and fruit. Possibly this was to counter the citrus leaf miner which is prevalent in the region. In August the fruits shown below were of-course still not fully developed.

Botanical Note: These names are dubious. A study of Risso's plates from 1818 shows two citrus types called Mellarosa.
These are Bergamotta mellarosa and Limonier mellarosa. The Risso pictures shown below match very well with my photos!
The 'Bergamotta' is used in France and Italy to produce oil for the perfume industry.