Get to know 20 plants selected from Greece. Discover their scientific names, identifying features and growing needs.
Olea europaea
Has a rugged, much-branched habit and slow growth, eventually 4.5-9m. Leaves are narrowly obovate or oval, to 7.5cm long, leathery, silvery beneath. Very small white flowers are borne in axillary racemes to 5cm long. Many cultivated varieti
Learn more →
Pittosporum tobira
P. tobira is a dense, broad, slow-growing medium-sized evergreen shrub with leathery, glossy, obovate leaves, and large terminal umbels of small sweetly-scented flowers opening white, soon turning yellow, in late spring and early summer
Learn more →
Punica granatum
P. granatum is a rounded shrub with glossy, narrowly oblong leaves, bronze in spring, and funnel-shaped bright scarlet flowers 3-4cm across in summer, sometimes followed by spherical, reddish-brown fruits up to 12cm across
Learn more →
Bougainvillea glabra
A virgorous climber with semi-glossy leaves to 13cm long. In summer it bears flowers formed of papery, petal-like magenta bracts. It requires the protection of a temperate glasshouse or conservatory, although potted plants can be moved outs
Learn more →
Nerium oleander
N. oleander is an evergreen shrub with narrowly lance-shaped grey-green leaves and terminal clusters of salver-shaped, pink, white or red flowers 3-4cm across, in summer
Learn more →
Lantana camara
L. camara is an evergreen shrub with sometimes prickly stems bearing wrinkled, ovate leaves and terminal clusters of salver-shaped flowers 1cm across, opening yellow and ageing to red, from late spring to autumn
Learn more →
Plumbago auriculata
P. auriculata is an evergreen shrub to 4m or more (with support), with slender, scandent stems bearing light green, spoon-shaped leaves and terminal racemes of sky-blue, long-tubed flowers 15mm across
Learn more →
Ficus carica
A large shrub or small, spreading tree to around 3m tall and 4m wide with rounded, lobed leaves. Insignificant flowers are followed by edible fruit that ripen to shades of green and purple. Many cultivated varieties of fig have been develop
Learn more →
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
A compact evergreen shrub with ovate to broadly lance-shaped glossy dark green leaves. Single 5-petalled flowers 10cm across with yellow anthered red stamens are produced from the leaf axils from summer to autumn, though in cultivation semi
Learn more →
Ocimum basilicum
An aromatic tender annual or short-lived perennial, 30-60cm tall and 30cm wide, with bright green, elliptic leaves approximately 5cm long and 2-3cm wide. Many different cultivars available, varying in size and colour. Small, tubular white o
Learn more →
Pistacia lentiscus
A tender evergreen shrub or small tree, up to 3m high, with pinnate, aromatic, leathery green leaves divided into up to 7 pairs of leaflets. Small flowers are produced in late spring and early summer; on male plants these are reddish and he
Learn more →
Beta vulgaris
This is the original plant from which our cultivated beet plants have been selected. It has deep green, fleshy leaves which are edible, as in leaf beet and colourful stems making it extremely ornamental as a foliage plant, as in chard. In s
Learn more →
Aloe vera
An evergreen perennial to 0.6m, forming rosettes of fleshy, narrow, dull green leaves with spiny margins, with long racemes of tubular greenish-yellow flowers 3cm in length in racemes to 90cm in length
Learn more →
Ceratonia siliqua
A Mediterranean evergreen shrubby tree with thick brown bark and dark green, leathery, pinnate leaves. Tiny green-tinted red flowers in racemes 2-6cm long, during spring, are followed by edible black-brown leathery pods containing a sweet p
Learn more →
Mirabilis jalapa
M. jalapa is a bushy, tuberous perennial often grown as an annual, with fragrant flowers opening in the afternoon, in a wide range of colours, and sometimes bicoloured
Learn more →
Vitis vinifera
Woody plant, climbing by tendrils, about 15-18m tall. Leaves are 3 or 5-lobed, coarsely toothed, to 15cm long and wide, with stalks half as long as the blade. Flowers are tiny, greenish, in loose panicles, fruit oval or globose grapes. This
Learn more →
Araucaria heterophylla
An elegant, conical, coniferous tree with distinctive whirled branches of juvenile, fan-like foliage and mature, spiralled foliage. Young plants are often used as houseplants
Learn more →
Capsicum annuum
This is the wild plant from which many of our cultivated sweet peppers and chillies have been bred. It shows a wide range of fruit shapes, colours, sizes and degree of capsaicin production - from where the heat may or may not be felt. It ha
Learn more →
Crassula ovata
A bushy succulent evergreen sub-shrub growing slowly to 2m, with rounded fleshy dark green leaves often edged with red, and flat clusters of small starry white or light pink flowers in late summer
Learn more →
Phlomis fruticosa
P. fruticosa is a small spreading evergreen shrub, the erect shoots bearing sage-like, grey-green ovate leaves to 12cm in length. Flowers 3cm in length, hooded, deep yellow, in whorls in the upper leaf axils from early summer
Learn more →