plants in Greece

Greeks lived on the coast. So what kinds of plants were around?

in the wild

• the trees only grew to moderate heights- no big Douglas firs or oaks
• lots of succulents- kind of like the cactus, but they have leaves. They retain a lot of water.
• carob, Aleppo pines, planes, oaks, arbutus, mastic bushes, laurel, broom, oleander, wild olives

These plants were found naturally on the coastline. Olive trees were very abundant in Attica. That's how they got to be a big part of Greek life.

what they grew

• in rural areas- cereals, olives and vines.
• barley was grown a lot- in fact, MORE than wheat. In the classical period, barley was especially important, probably because each person had little land to work with. Barley is good in that kind of situation.

These plants were grown by people for their own food, and also for trade. Probably 50% of Attica was used for cultivating crops, mostly using beasts of burden. About 85% of the people living in Greece were farmers, even though the land wasn't very good for it!

olives

• in the Peloponnese, the Helots at times paid part of their rent to the Spartans with olive oil
• most abundant in Attica
• according to Herodotus, the olive tree originated in Greece
• olives can grow on bad soil where cereals can't- a plus for the Greeks since their soil was bad
• olive crops attract honey bees
• unfortunately, they only crop once every two years
• over time, the olive population grew because it was so useful to the Greeks

other parts of Greece

• west- wetter. 800-2000m: macchia
• south east- drier: shrubs like heath, juniper, spurge
• mountains of north and central Greece. 1500m: mixed deciduous forests with chestnut, elm, beech, plane, maple. 1700m: coniferous forests. 2000m: Apollo fir

non native plants

• date palm introduced from Africa
• agave and prickly pear introduced from Central America

Because the land that the Greeks lived on was so bad, they used all the best parts for farming. So most of the trees were cut down and a barren countryside was left. So they probably had even less contact with the natural plants, and more with their crops.
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