27 Continental Greece, Pindos Range

The Pindus Range on the Greek mainland, running between the provinces of Thessaly and Epirus, has a rougher continental climate and a greener vegetation than the more Mediterranean Peloponnese peninsula, with its long, sun-scorched summers. At a lower altitude on the range we find deciduous forests with a special variety of oak species, including Downy oak, Hungarian oak, and Moss-cupped oak, as well as the lesser-known Dalechamp’s oak and Macedonian oak. In addition to these Quercus species, the range is endowed with Sweet chestnut, lime, hornbeam, Field maple, Montpellier maple and eastern counterparts of western European species: Oriental beech, Eastern hornbeam, Eastern hop-hornbeam, Tatar maple, and Oriental plane, also known as Old World sycamore. At higher altitudes, Greek silver fir and King Boris’ fir gradually start to populate the slopes, the latter species being a natural hybrid of the former and the Alpine silver fir. Spreading out at the tree line are juniper forests made up of Greek juniper and Cade juniper. On the southern slopes of the Pindus range and south into the Peloponnese we encounter Black pine forests with abundant specimens of the subspecies “Palassiana”.