National Research Council of Italy
Trees and Timber Institute

The Cultural Association “Coltiviamo la Pace” of Florence request «Let’s adopt the Olive trees of Gethsemane”  aimed to study in depth and update knowledge on the 8 centuries-old olive trees in the «Garden of Gethsemane» in Jerusalem to promote activities in support of the Christian community in the Holy Land.
The project, of extraordinary importance for its religious, cultural and scientific expectations, obviously required interdisciplinary skills which were identified in five university departments [Agrarian and Environmental Sciences, Udine; “Leo Pardi” Evolutionary Biology and Agrarian Biotechnologies, Florence; Agrarian, Food and Agro-Environmental Sciences, Pisa; Laboratory of Ecology and Plant Physiology, Dept. of Evolutionary Biology, Florence; Laboratory of Commodities, University of Chieti - Pescara] and 3 Institutes of the National Research Council in the Scientific Pole of Sesto Fiorentino (Florence): Tree and Timber Institute; ‘Nello Carrara’ Institute of Applied Physics; Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (Centre of Electronic Microscopes).
Scientific Coordination: Dr. Antonio Cimato, Trees and Timber Institute