Content of the “Flora of Greece” Web

The website on the Flora of Greece: a) brings together data from authoritative sources, b) contains information on all species and subspecies of vascular plants occurring in Greece and c) is updated continuously.

NEW information and new fields in Version III (April 2020)

The field of Status has been differentiated for each taxon as follows:

  • Native/Range-Restricted; Native/Non Range-Restricted
  • Alien/Established; Alien/Non-Established; Alien/Establishment unknown

New field:

  • IUCN category has been added for evaluated taxa of the vascular plants of Greece (Greek Red Data Book, 1995, 2009, European IUCN Red List) (1019 taxa)

New field:

  • Presidential Decree 67/81: all taxa listed in the national list of protected species (899 taxa)

Vascular plants diversity of Greece (version III)

In April 2020, the vascular flora of Greece comprises 5885 species and 2000 subspecies (native and naturalized), representing 6760 taxa, belonging to 1087 genera and 184 families. The full dataset has a total of 7890 records, comprising species and subspecies plus ten sections of Taraxacum and two aggregates (Portulaca oleracea aggr., Taraxacum mediterraneum aggr.).

The only species for which the status of “native but extinct” was confirmed are Isoetes heldreichii (SPi, Isoetaceae) according to Troia & Greuter (2015) and Stratiotes aloides (NC, Hydrocharitaceae). Regarding Staphylea pinnata, it was supposed to be extinct in Greece by construction and flooding of the Thisavros dam (Nomos Dramas) in 1996 (Raus 2006). Recently, a rich population of S. pinnata was discovered further south in the central part of the Nestos gorge growing on inaccessible steep slopes on the western bank of the river (Mastrogianni et al., 2019, in Euro+Med-Checklist Notulae 11), representing the southernmost occurrence of the species in Europe.

The current version III of the “Flora of Greece” Web contains:

  • 7885 valid taxa names
  • 6556 synonyms and 820 misapplied names.
  • 1066 “excluded taxa”, i.e. taxa disregarded as being reported in error, non-established aliens, non-stabilized hybrids, taxonomically enigmatic, or vanished from Greece
  • 1483 comments/notes on taxa disregarded as being reported in error, non-established aliens, non-stabilized hybrids, taxonomically enigmatic, or vanished.
  • 217 taxonomic and biogeographical notes (taxon info)
  • Distribution maps showing occurrence of each taxon in the 13 floristic (phytogeographical) regions of Greece
  • Status for each taxon (Native/Range-Restricted; Native/Non Range-Restricted; Alien/Established; Alien/Non-Established; Alien/Establishment unknown)
  • Chorology for each taxon
  • Life-form for each taxon
  • Habitat for each taxon (falling mostly into one habitat category but may comprise two or more categories)
  • IUCN category for each evaluated taxon (1019 taxa) (all the others are noted as non-evaluated)
  • Presidential Decree 67/81 for the taxa included in the list (899 taxa)
  • Photographs of taxa (5743 images)
  • Bibliography

Photos and Contributors

5743 images representing 2082 species and 615 subspecies (a total of 2698 species and subspecies) are currently included in the FoG web.

Sincere thanks are due to the following contributors who have offered in a volunteer basis their images which have already been uploaded in the FoG web:

  • Goula, Katerina
  • Willing, Eckhard
  • Turland, Nicholas
  • Kalpoutzakis, Eleftherios
  • Giannakis, Thomas
  • Strid, Arne 
  • Nikitidis, Nikos
  • Zografidis, Aris 
  • Zarkos, Georgios
  • Charitonidou, Martha
  • Bazos, Ioannis
  • Delipetrou, Pinelopi
  • Giannopoulos, Konstantinos
  • Ioannidis, Vasilis
  • Kofinas, Giannis
  • Korakis, Giorgos 
  • Kipopoulos, Eleftherios
  • Charalambidis, Stylianos
  • Christodoulou, Vasilis
  • Delahaye, Thierry
  • Dimitrakopoulos, Panayiotis
  • Dimopoulos, Panayotis
  • Fassou, Georgia
  • Flohe, Johannes
  • Fournaraki, Christina
  • Kleanthidis, Platon
  • Axiotis, Makis
  • Knud Thomsen
  • Kokkoris, Ioannis
  • Lansdown, Richard
  • Lenton, Stephen
  • Lubienski, Markus
  • Lytras, Tassos
  • Mermygkas, Dionysios
  • Meyer, Stefan
  • Nikolopoulou, Gisela
  • Panitsa, Maria
  • Papanikolaou, Thanasis
  • Poirel, Alain
  • Politis, Georgios
  • Psimmenos, Nikos
  • Raabe, Uwe
  • Sakoulis, Tassos
  • Sykora, Karle
  • Trigas, Panagiotis
  • Tsiftsis, Spyros
  • Vercaigne, Marc
  • Vidakis, Kostas
  • Zachariadou, Tania
  • Jagel, Armin
  • Jordan, Jan

Older versions

Version II (June 2018)

In the end of May 2018, the vascular flora of Greece comprises 5828 species and 1982 subspecies (native and naturalized), representing 6695 taxa, belonging to 1083 genera and 185 families. The full dataset has a total of 7810 records, comprising species and subspecies plus ten sections of Taraxacum and two aggregates (Portulaca oleracea aggr., Taraxacum mediterraneum aggr.). 

The only species for which the status of “native but extinct” was confirmed are Isoetes heldreichii (SPi, Isoetaceae) according to Troia & Greuter (2015) and Stratiotes aloides (NC, Hydrocharitaceae).

Regarding Staphylea pinnata, it was supposed to be extinct in Greece by construction and flooding of the Thisavros dam (Nomos Dramas) in 1996 (Raus 2006). Recently, a rich population of S. pinnata was discovered further south in the central part of the Nestos gorge growing on inaccessible steep slopes on the western bank of the river (I. Tsiripidis, obs.), representing the southernmost occurrence of the species in Europe.

More specifically and synoptically the “Flora of Greece” Web contains:

  • 7810 valid taxa names
  • 6479 synonyms
    Note on synonyms: the listed synonymies a) keep within the taxonomic ranks of species and subspecies; varietal rank is considered only when it has been found repeatedly incorrectly used at subspecific rank in the literature analyzed, b) include designations not validly published and illegitimate names (including nomina nuda, confusing names and rejected names), as far as they have been used in the extracted floristic studies. Highlighting or qualifying them was beyond the scope of the Vascular Plants Checklist of Greece, and only misapplied designations are marked with the standard phrase “auct. fl. graec.” (auctorum florae graecae, of authors of the Greek flora, i.e. in the sense of authors on Greek floristics), followed by the correct (though misapplied) nomenclatural authority. Lacking nomenclatural validity or legitimacy were no criteria to omit names, aiming at creating a tool for proper assessment of previous literature sources of Greek floristics.
  • 1058 “excluded taxa”, i.e. taxa disregarded as being reported in error, non-established aliens, non-stabilized hybrids, taxonomically enigmatic, or vanished from Greece 
  • 1368 comments on taxa disregarded as being reported in error, non-established aliens, non-stabilized hybrids, taxonomically enigmatic, or vanished.
  • Distribution maps showing occurrence of each taxon in the 13 floristic (phytogeographical) regions of Greece
  • Chorological category/type for each taxon
  • Life-form category for each taxon
  • Status for each taxon (native, alien, range-restricted)
  • Habitat category that a taxon occupies (falling mostly into one habitat category but may comprise two or more categories)
  • Photographs of selected taxa
  • Bibliography

Version I (June 2017)

In October 2013, the vascular flora of Greece comprised 5758 species and 1970 subspecies (native and naturalized), representing 6620 taxa, belonging to 1073 genera and 185 families. The full dataset has a total of 7734 records, comprising species and subspecies plus ten sections of Taraxacum and one aggregate (Portulaca oleracea aggr.). 

The only species for which the status of “native but extinct” was confirmed are Staphylea pinnata (NE) and Stratiotes aloides (NC).