Plants of the ancient texts
Species named by Homer, Theophrastus and Dioscorides.
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A botanical garden on the slope of Mount Aigaleo west of Athens, extending over about a hundred and eighty-six hectares, and the largest botanical garden in the eastern Mediterranean. It was established under the will of Alexandros Diomedes, the banker and former Greek prime minister, who left his fortune for the purpose. It opened to the public in the 1970s and is run by the University of Athens. Most of that vast area is not laid-out garden but natural Mediterranean vegetation — pine, oak and the aromatic maquis scrub — crossed by paths. The planted sections include a collection of endemic Greek plants, a section of medicinal and aromatic plants, and a historical garden holding the species named in ancient Greek texts. That last section is the most intellectually rewarding: plants mentioned by Homer, Theophrastus and Dioscorides, grown and explained. It is far from central Athens and needs a car or bus, and is visited in two to three hours.
Species named by Homer, Theophrastus and Dioscorides.
Natural aromatic Mediterranean cover fills most of the area.
Diomedes left his fortune to create the garden.
Chaidari, west of Athens on the Elefsina road
A Greek philosopher from Lesbos, Aristotle's pupil and his successor at the head of the Lyceum. He wrote on almost everything, but the most important of his surviving work is two books on plants: Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants. They make him the founder of botany: he classified hundreds of species and described their reproduction and habitats by a method based on observation rather than on medicinal use alone. His two books remained a reference in Europe until the sixteenth century.
Spring without competition — March to May, when the Mediterranean plants flower, the paths are green and the weather mild. Autumn after the first rains is also good. Avoid July and August: much of the area is exposed, the heat is severe, and fire risk raises the chance of closure. Go in the morning in any case.
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