His multi-volume Sylloge Fungorum was one of the first attempts to produce a comprehensive list of identified fungi, using their spore-bearing structures for classification.

He also authored a color classification system that he called Chromotaxia and contributed to the Italian translation of Charles Darwin's Insectivorous Plants.

He became an Assistant to Roberto de Visiani (1800-1878), an Italian botanist, naturalist and scholar.

In 1879, he became a professor of Botany and director of the botanical gardens of the university, a post he held until his retirement in November 1915.

[3][4] Saccardo edited two exsiccata series, namely Muschi Trevigiani dissecti / Bryotheca Tarvisina (1864) and Mycotheca Veneta, sistens fungos Venetos exsiccatos (1875-1881).

[9] His son-in-law, Alessandro Trotter was involved in the posthumous completion of several of volumes of the Sylloge fungorum.