The Alpinum displays plants from alpine habitats and typical mountain habitats from all over the world. Cultivating alpine plants is a great challenge from a horticultural point of view, as the summer temperatures in Basel are too high for many alpine plants. Therefore, the Alpinum also houses a large number of plants from the sub-alpine and montane stages of the world's mountains.

Redesign of the Alpinum 2020-2021

The Alpinum was already established when the garden was founded. It had changed a lot in the last decades. Deteriorated soil conditions made the cultivation of alpine plants much more difficult and favored heavy weeding. In 2021/22, the Alpinum was therefore thoroughly renovated. In particular, the old soil was replaced and the historic limestones were brought back to light. Thanks to a wide variety of substrate basins with lime and silicate, a wealth of species from different alpine habitats can now be displayed again.

The garden received financial support for the restoration from the Voluntary Academic Society Basel FAG.

Featured are:

• Tweedy's bitterroot (Lewisiopsis tweedyi)
• Rusty-leaved alpine rose (Rhododendron ferrugineum)
• Cretan hedgehog's cushion (Acantholimon ulicinum subsp. cretica)