Flora

Aristotle was the first to try and describe all the plants and animals; in other words, the flora and the fauna, that existed at that time in Greece. Especially for flora, he wrote his book called “Concerning Plants”, which however was lost over time. His student, Theophrastus, was especially interested in flora, as depicted in his works “On the causes of plants” and “Enquiry into Plants”, in which he described about 550 species”. Later in the 1st Century A,D, the doctor and “grub-hunter” Dioscorides, in his book “De Materia Medica” described over 600 types of plants that were of medical interest. This book was published in 512 A.D., with colored images under the title “Codex vindobonensis”.

A long-lasting dark period followed the great Ancient Greek researchers, up to the time of the European Renaissance times, when interest in plants again began to develop, this time in Central and Western Europe. Το This interest by the Europeans soon “invaded” Greece. Great scientists and researchers began to arrive in Greece, which at that time was under the Ottoman yoke, in order to study not only antiquities but also its nature, and they went on to publish remarkable works. Since then, many renowned researchers began to get involved in Greek flora. With the entry into the 20th Century, research in the flora on Greek land continued with many articles by Greek and foreign researchers, as well as by universities.

An attempt was made to fill the vacuum of information that undoubtedly exists for many Greek species, by the “Program for the Creation of a Data-Bank for Greece’s Natural Environment” by the National Metsovio Polytechnic, which began in 1990 and ended in 1994.. Collecting and evaluating the information amassed by that time permitted the recording of the species and sub-species, amounting to 5,514 taxa, of which there is not adequate information on over more than 1.000 species.