Instituted in 1984 by initiative of the Comunità Montana della Garfagnana, which is entrusted with its management, the "Pania di Corfino" Botanical Garden is situated 1370 m a.s.l. in the mountain range by the same name. A botanical garden of the Province of Lucca, its purpose is to collect and preserve autochthonous fauna of the Lucca Apennines. Subdivided into specific areas, it reproduces several typical environments of the Apennines and Apuane Alps: peat bog, grasslands, heath, arboretum, hillock and quarry The Hortus Sanitatis section is dedicated to the medicinal and eatable plants of the Garfagnana tradition. The Garden also has a xylological collection (made up of wood samples for study from the botanical and technological viewpoints), housed in the preparation laboratory and made up of longitudinal and transversal sections of the trunks of various tree species on Garfagnana territory. The collection is particularly important from the educational viewpoint, as it offers the possibility to literally touch the sections of the plants found inside and outside of the Botanical Garden.

The Phenological Garden was instituted in 1997. It belongs to the Network of International Phenological Gardens which studies the effects of climate on the development of plants cloned from the same mother plant, depending on the difference of latitude. As they enter, visitors find a sub-fossil silver fir that was found in the area and can be dated to 1200 A.D.

In addition to its intense didactic activity, the Garden promotes study and research, organising conferences dedicated to the knowledge of the plant wealth of Tuscany.