Contemporary Greek Flora

Most tourists visiting Greece for its crystalline waters and magnificent remains attracted by its ancient culture and is very little about the diversity and richness of the flora of this country know has a surprisingly large number of species over 6,000 sub-species and varieties. In proportion to its size, Greece has more species of flowers than any other European country or the United States. Plenteousness Greek flora is the result of a number of factors, primarily the country's geographical situation. With the weather conditions in Greece, allowing the soil to receive contributions from other floras closely, especially in Central Europe and Anatolia.

After the fall of the sea, has relics of the flora of the Tertiary to Quaternary glaciations had created survives in the gradual migration of their region of origin on the deck of the glaciers and the successor countries different United. Prior to the recent flooding of the Mediterranean species of eastern origin reached Europe through Thrace and other areas of central and southern Aegean. That the flora of Greece and the Balkan region will develop, in general, by the ancient Paleozoic Flora confirmed by the presence of many endemic species of endemic species palaeochannel is now only in small colonies. Examples are the species of the Balkans and Asia Minor, as Ebenus cretica its distribution center in Asia or heldreichii Jancaea, a member of the family Gesneriaceae endemic to Mount Olympus and of a type of group is almost exclusively tropical and subtropical plant.

The elements from Africa, the Caucasus and the northern Balkan peninsula, but did not spread to western Europe in Greece after the disappearance of primeval forests established that assigned to the dry land to encourage growth drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants. These factors place in Greece has become a crossroads of migration of different floras, a sort of refugee camp, where many species of native plants of Central Europe (including many alpine species set) and moan like the Mediterranean the Balkans. Middle East and North African species, and all the constant of propagation. Another important tool is mainly of Greek flora is that it is a very high number of endemic species around 800 Some of these old relics of the Tertiary flora, which was destroyed by ice in other places, but found the right conditions for survival in Greece, but these are archaic forms are not sufficient to explain the high rate of endemism, like most species undoubtedly recent geological times, many from the place where first identified.