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The pictures in this column come from the vinification process of the famous wine from Santorini island in Greece.

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Wine making is a natural process that requires little human intervention, but each wine maker guides the process through different techniques. In general, there are five basic components of the wine making process: harvesting, crushing and pressing, fermentation, clarification, and aging and bottling.
Photo by Wine Folly.

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In red wine, as well as in white, the grapes are transported initially to the crate-demiterator. The keels are removed and the rails are broken.
Then, unlike white wine, the grape seed is transferred directly to an alcoholic fermentation tank (winemaker).
The temperature of 30 ° C allows the color to be picked up. The CO2 produced by the alcoholic fermentation raises the grapes of the grapes to the surface of the tank, where they form the "hat". Grape is pulled from the bottom of the tank and pumped from the top of the tank by spraying the "hat". This process allows for better absorption of color, tannins and perfumes from the bark.

Once the fermented must has the desired color, it is removed as much as possible from the bark and transported to other tanks. The bark is transported to the press where the remainder of the juice is extracted. When the alcoholic fermentation is complete, a second fermentation, the malolactic of the lactic bacteria, usually takes place. With this fermentation, malic acid turns into lactate, a change that softens the wild nature of wine and helps it mature.

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In the white winery, the grapes are transported to the crate, where the rails are separated from the corms, and then the rails pass from the crate where a portion of their juice is released.
The grape seed produced in this way is driven to the press. The juice that flows out of the press is cooled and stays in the tank for some time. During the decomposition the suspended solids are precipitated and the clear must is separated.
The pure juice is then poured into a tank or barrel where the alcoholic fermentation is made from yeast. During the fermentation, cooling is applied so that the temperature does not exceed 18-20oC.

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Photo  © Dimitra Christidi

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Photo  © Dimitra Christidi

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Find details on the research concerning Climate Change in Greece here.

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Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Origanum
Species: O. vulgare

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Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Genus: Cuminum
Species: C. cyminum

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Many traditional Greek plates originate by grain legumes.

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My PlantArea belongs to the Mediterranenan Region!
13 different countries make up for this Biogeographical Region.
Main habitat types include:
- Agricultural land
- Forests
-Olive groves, Orchards, Heathlands

It consists of:
-Mountainous landscapes
-Small island plateaus
-Rocky coasts

As far as climate is concerned, there are hot and dry summers with mild winters.

Photo © Dimitra Christidi

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Enquiry into Plants or Historia Plantarum (Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία)

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Enquiry into Plants or Historia Plantarum (Greek: Περὶ φυτῶν ἱστορία)

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Theophrastus looks at plant structure, reproduction and growth; the varieties of plant around the world; wood; wild and cultivated plants; and their uses. Book 9 in particular, on the medicinal uses of plants, is one of the first herbals, describing juices, gums and resins extracted from plants, and how to gather them.

Photo from the Book in the collection of the Oxford University.

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Forest fire in Parnitha Mountain of Athens - 2007.

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Parnitha after the fire

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Χωρίς τίτλο2

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Forest fire - a devastating phenomenon in Greek ecosystems

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Forest fire - a devastating phenomenon in Greek ecosystems

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Mediterranean ecosystems are used to periodic forest fires, started by natural causes every few years. Pinus trees have even evolved into this phenomenon by adapting new strategies to their pollination and flowering procedures.

However, when these catastrophes happen more often than expected, there is no time given to the forest to rejuvenate. Plus, when shepherds introduce their flocks in the burnt areas, so that sheep and goats feed on the little treelings, leaving no future crop, there is a problem.

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Theme 4: Plants as source for the future

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Theme 4: Plants as source for the future

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We are still strongly depended on fossil fuels and only the developed countries of the world have the technology and therefore the luxury of using green energy.

Replacing fossil fuels with biofuels is highly controversial since it solves one problem but creates new ones.

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The main threats to Flora of my region are:
- illegal collection of herbs, medicinal plants and wildflowers
- global warming
- expansion of cultivated lands and inhabited areas
- forest fires
- pesticides
- pollution

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Link to Reference.
Click to enlarge

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Tropical Andean trees migrate to higher altitudes where the air is cool enough to support their existence. Due to the fast climatic change they have to move faster in order to remain in equilibrium with their preferred temperatures.

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Abies cephalonica, or else Greek fir, is a fir native to the mountains of Greece, primarily in the Peloponnesos and the island of Kefallonia, integrating with the closely related Bulgarian fir further north in the Pindus mountains of northern Greece.
It is a medium-size evergreen coniferous tree growing to 25–35 metres – tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m. It occurs at altitudes of 900–1,700 m, on mountains with a rainfall of over 1,000 mm.

The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 1.5–3.0 cm long and 2 mm wide by 0.5 mm thick, glossy dark green above, and with two blue-white bands of stomata below.

The tip of the leaf is pointed, usually fairly sharply but sometimes with a blunt tip, particularly on slow-growing shoots on older trees. The cones are 10–20 cm long and 4 cm broad, with about 150–200 scales, each scale with an exserted bract and two winged seeds; they disintegrate when mature to release the seeds.

Photo from unknown origin.

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Marathon and Schinias are located North of the airport of Athens, approx. half an hour drive.

This is the place of arguably the most defining battle in Western history: the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). There's a Tomb and Museum dedicated to the battle.

It is also the birthplace of the marathon run!

Schinias National Park, is part of Natura 2000 network and considered the most important coastal ecosystem of Attica. It has a total of 19 habitat types, 240 bird species while there are threatened species of freshwater fish, amphibians and reptiles.

Highlight species include permanent residents Long-legged Buzzard, Little Owl, Chukar, Blue Rock Thrush, Penduline Tit, Short-toed tree-creeper and Cirl Bunting.

Photo © Dimitra Christidi

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Mt Imittos (or Ymittos or Hymettus) is the second of the three mountains surrounding Athens.

It is located in the E of the Atticaprefecture and was also called "Trelos" (meaning crazy in Greek) after the French characterization "très long" (meaning very long) because of its 16km spread, with its highest peak reaching at 1026 m. Another explanation of the nickname was because of the instability of the clouds at the summit of the mountain, which gave the quality of a meteorological barometer, that is, gazing at its summit, people in the ancient times could tell what the weather would be like!

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Ymittos is located in the east part of Athens, trasverssing the city's whole length making it a refuge for many migrating bird species that consider the mountain a magnetising paradise after the long journey they have overtaken, passing over the vast Mediterranean to make it to Europe for the summer.

Together with the variety of available habitats it offers, from tall cypresses and hedgy pines to short shrubbery and rocky cliffs, Ymittos is an alloted hotspot of biodiversity. Birds of prey, raptors, passerines, ground birds, butterflies, beetles, tortoises, rabbits, and even foxes are to be found in the mountain's fauna, secrets that are not so well hidden and can be found on a morning's walk. More than a 100 species of birds that have been recorded in Ymittos Mt. and something like 600 species of plants (23 of which are endemic of Greece!!), have been the reason why the mountain has been incorporated into the NATURA 2000 catalogue, the European list of protected areas.

Within the years, a vast network of trails has been encraved in the slopes of the mountain, that are walked by hundreds of people everyday for their morning exercise or for a mountain stroll out of the noises of the city. You are invited to trek with us, in this huge array of paths to uncover the hidden treasures that will give you a sense of being far away from the urban civilization while still being able to gaze upon Athens from above.

Depending on the period of the year, there may be high odds of seeing the rare species of the Ruppell's warbler (Sylvia rueppelli) amid the spring and summer months, just as well as different species of passerines, raptors, buzzards, eagles and chukar partridges. With regards to our little companions in the insect kingdom, you may get the opportunity of astounding butterfly photography, and can contend in recognizing diverse beetle species! Wildflowers are not to be left out for this not insignificant rundown of natural life, as you can see orchids, cyclamens, anemones and in the event that you are fortunate, you may uncover the astounding Colchicum cupanii, Crocus pallasii and Prospero autumnale!

Photo © Dimitra Christidi

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The Pnyx (Greek: Πνύκα, Pnyka) is a hill in central Athens, the capital of Greece.

Beginning as early as 507 BC (Fifth-century Athens), the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy.

Photo  © Dimitra Christidi

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Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Silybum
Species: S. marianum

The thistle belongs to the asteroid family and was named after its spiny leaves. It is found everywhere in the world, and it would be a common herb. But it particularly loves the temperate Mediterranean climate and we find it in the shape of a bush. They are flowering one-year, two-year or perennial plants belonging to the family of daisies (Asteraceae or formerly Compositae).
They are characterized by leaves and stems that carry thorns. It is said that these thorns are an adaptation that protects the plant from herbivorous animals. The heads of their flowers, radially symmetrical, are at the ends of the shoots and are usually pale purple, pink roses, yellow or white. Their seeds, a favorite delight for cardinals and other small birds.

Herbs are mainly used for herbaceous seeds, which are harvested towards the end of summer when they are fully dried. And the other parts of the plant are used pharmaceuticals but have lower levels of active substances.

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The thistle has been used since the Greco-Roman times, particularly for supporting the liver and detoxifying the blood. Since about 1890, US pharmacies have been delivering the extract to treat congestion of digestive organs with fatty infiltration. The German Pharmacopoeia recognizes the seeds and titratable thistle extracts as cures for digestive disorders and organ damage from poisons and toxins and as a supportive treatment for chronic inflammatory diseases and cirrhosis of the liver.

The active ingredient of the thistle is silymarin (silybin, silyladin and silicrystine). This flavonoid is antioxidant. Helps regenerate damaged liver cells and large tissue segments by activating protein synthesis in hepatic cells by increasing activity of the genetic material (DNA-RNA). It also protects the liver cells, preventing toxins from penetrating them and neutralizing the toxins that have already entered.

In modern herbal medicine, thistle is the primary remedy used to protect the liver from infections, drinking alcohol or chemotherapy. It can help to reduce the damage to the liver and the renewal of its cells.

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Wild olive trees - Olea europeae var. sylvestris

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Wild olive trees - Olea europeae var. sylvestris

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Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Oleaceae
Genus: Olea
Species: O. oleaster or O. europeae var. sylvestris

The wild olive tree is the ancestor of today's cultivated olive tree and grows almost all over the Mediterranean, where the climate favors its cultivation. Wild olive treed, exist in large numbers on uncultivated land between olive groves and grow in the roots of tame olive trees.

Photo © Dimitra Christidi

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The wild olive is known since antiquity! Since before the domestication, that is believed to have taken place in Crete during the Minoan era, it was gathered during the Neolithic era as a food. Later, it is said that the Roman Emperors made oil of them and held it for their personal use. Over the centuries the wild-olive oil was forgotten.

Its foliage is small, its growth slow and its fruits also small and with minimal yield in olive oil. They have red flesh as opposed to the day-old olives, whose flesh is white in color. When they need an average of 4 to 6 kilograms of olive oil for the production of olive oil, about 15 to 20 kilograms of fruit are needed for wild olives. This is why the production of olive oil from wild olives has been forgotten, and is done by only a few producers in the world.

Wild olive oil has a particular taste and varies (as is its price) according to the production and health certificates of the Kapodistrian University of Athens, which mainly concern phenol analysis (though not only that). Olive oil gourmets do not know how to describe it. Its taste reminds of a very wild nature. The organoleptic ingredients and their composition appear to be quite different from those of the olive oil. It has the same fatty acids, but has a greater number of phenolic compounds, vitamin E, antioxidants, ω-3 and ω-6 fat.

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The Hill is located in the centre of the city and constitutes one of the few "Green breaths" of Athens.

It hosts mainly Mediterranean flora, made of low bushes and thorny shrubs, together with many olive trees and pines. However, within the years many cypress trees were planted in the area, expanding and creating the vast forest that it now holds in the heart of the city.

Photo © Dimitra Christidi

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Theophrastus tours plant anatomy, including leaves (phylla), flowers, catkins, fruits (karpoi), seeds, roots (rhizai), and wood.

Plants are classified as trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annual herbs (poai); these divisions are acknowledged to be rough and ready, as is the division into wild or cultivated, whereas the aquatic/terrestrial division appeared to be natural. Theophrastus notes that some plants are irregular, while the silver fir has branches always opposite each other and other plants have branches equally spaced or in rows. Figs have the longest roots, while the banyan sends roots down from the shoots, forming a circle of roots at a distance all round the trunk.

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You can find examples that prove the pharmaceutical properties of the milk thystle in the following links:

Silybum marianum: Beyond Hepatoprotection

Cultivation of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L. Gaertn.), a medicinal weed

New therapeutic potentials of milk thistle (Silybum marianum)

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You can find examples that prove the pharmaceutical properties of the wild olive trees in the following links:

A review: benefit and bioactive properties of olive (Olea europaea L.) leaves

Therapeutic effect of Olea europea var. oleaster leaves on lipidic and carbohydrate metabolism

Phenolic extract from oleaster (Olea europaea var. Sylvestris) leaves reduces colon cancer growth

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My business plan can be found here.
Make sure to check it out!

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Theophrastus writes that plants can grow spontaneously, from seed, or from vegetative parts of the plant. Plants with bulbs grow from those. Soil and climate influence growth. Some plants change into others unless care is taken, so bergamot turns into mint, and wheat turns into darnel. He reports that if celery is trodden after sowing, it will become curly, and that figs are the easiest trees to propagate, whereas date palms have to be grown from several seeds together, and they like irrigation, dung, salt (at the age of one year) and being transplanted. Other kinds of palm have different habits and fruits. He notes that gall insects come out of wild figs and make the cultivated figs swell, which helps to prevent premature shedding of the fruit. The male spathe of the date palm is cut off and brought to the female, and its dust is shaken over the female tree to make it fruit

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Theophrastus asserts that all wild trees grow from seed or from roots. He mentions that the philosophers spoke of spontaneous generation, as when Anaxagoras claims the air contains the seeds of every plant, whereas Diogenes believed plants arose when water mixed with earth. In places like Crete, Theophrastus writes that native plants spring up if the ground is simply disturbed, and that wild trees are generally more vigorous than cultivated ones, give fruit later, and like cold and hilly terrain. He asserts that trees which can grow both on hill and plain grow better and taller when grown on the plain.

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Theophrastus describes trees and shrubs from different places and habitats, as for instance a sheltered part of the Arcadia region near Krane in a deep valley where the sun never reaches, and the silver-fir trees are exceptionally tall. He looks into the plants of Egypt, Libya, Asia, northern regions, and then aquatic plants from the Mediterranean, wetlands especially in Egypt, reeds and rushes. He also considers factors that limit the life of plants including diseases and weather damage.

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Theophrastus describes the wood of different trees, the effects of climate on wood, of knots and 'coiling' in timber and other differences in quality. He discusses which woods to use for specific purposes such as for carpentry, shipbuilding and for building houses, and the making of charcoal. The most useful trees are said to be silver-fir and fir, and they have the best wood in the largest sizes; the silver-fir is softer than the fir, and its wood has layers like an onion, and is made entirely of these layers. The strongest and most attractive wood is smooth, without knots.

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Book 6 - Undershrubs, with thorns or without

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Book 6 - Undershrubs, with thorns or without

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Theophrastus classifies undershrubs as spiny, such as thistle, eryngo and safflower, and spineless, such as marjoram, savory, sage, horehound, and balm. He notes that some have a hollow stem, such as deadly nightshade and hemlock. Roses, he writes, vary in number of petals, roughness of bark, colour and scent; they have five, twelve, twenty or more petals, and those with the sweetest scent come from Cyrene, and are used for making perfume. The times of flowering of different species are listed

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Theophrastus reports that cabbage, radish and turnip are sown in July after the summer solstice, along with beet, lettuce, mustard and coriander. Leeks, celery, onion and orache are sown in January. Cucumber, gourds, basil, purslane and savory, in contrast, he writes, are sown in April. Ripe seeds do not germinate at once but wait for the right time. He asserts that all the herbs can be grown from seed, while rue, marjoram and basil can be raised from cuttings, and garlic, onion and other bulbs are grown from their roots.

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Theophrastus groups together the cereals and the legumes (peas and beans), and includes millet and other many-seeded plants like sesame also. These can only be grown from seed. They can be sown early, as with wheat, barley and beans, or in spring after the equinox, for plants like lentils, tares and peas. Vetch and chickpeas can, he reports, be sown at either season. When sprouting, beans form a shape like a penis, from which the root grows down and the leafy stem upwards. Wheat and barley flower for four or five days, whereas the legumes flower for much longer. Theophrastus reports that these plants grow differently according to the region, so for instance crops in Salamis appear earlier than those elsewhere in Attica. Wheat varieties are recorded as being named for their localities; they differ in colour, size, growth habit and food value. In a place near Bactra in Asia the wheat grains are said to grow as big as the stone of an olive, whereas pulses do not in Theophrastus's view vary to the same extent

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Theophrastus covers juices (chylismos), gums, and resins, the uses of some hundreds of plants as medicines, and how to gather them.

Apart from Greece itself, medicinal plants are produced in Italy in Tyrrhenia, as Aeschylus records, and Latium; and in Egypt, which as Homer mentions is the source of the drug nepenthes that makes men forget sorrow and passion. The best hemlock comes from Susa, while dittany, useful in childbirth, comes only from Crete. Wolfsbane comes from Crete and Zakynthos; it can be made into a poison that causes death a year or more after taking it, and there is no antidote. Hemlock is a poison which brings a painless death; pepper and frankincense are antidotes for it. Strykhnos causes madness, but oleander root in wine makes people gentle and cheerful. Birthwort has many uses including for bruises on the head, snakebite, and prolapse of the uterus.