PhytEikon

The Mediterranean, especially its Eastern region, is a hot spot of biodiversity, with one of the richest florae in the world that has not been systematically documented and described in Antiquity in the manner of contemporary florae, which identify, describe, and systematically organize all plant species within a specific region in a standardized unambiguous technical language. However, numerous species that made up the ancient plant world have been recorded, characterized, and also classified in various treatises, the information from which may be compiled to create a descriptive and ordered inventory akin a flora. From the possible Aristotelian botanical treatise and its edition by Nicolaus of Damascus to the works by Galen and the agronomico-horticultural corpus in Greek or Latin, a substantial body of literature contains invaluable information on the plant environment of Antiquity with both precise descriptions and taxonomical systems that facilitate species identification and classification, bringing order in the great diversity of nature. Together with the plant depictions in manuscripts, textual data from this vast body of literature provide the material for a flora of antiquity.