The mountains of Northern Greece covered by this site until now are, in alphabetical order:
Mt Athamanon N 39°25'730" E 21°08'870"
Mt Athamanon, also known as Mt Tzoumerka, is the natural
boundary between the Epiros and
Thessaly regions. It is one of the longest and most remote parts of
the southern Pindos range.
The main substrate is limestone with sporadic appearance of flysch.
Its a continuous ridge
situated in a NW-SE direction, highest summit being Mt Katafidi at
2393m.
In the past the Ori Athamanon were densely forested, in recent
years, however, they have
suffered from irrational deforestation due to excessive
wood-cutting and grazing.
For this reason extensive bare places occur, but despite this we
can still find some well
forested slopes with coniferous forests, where Taxus baccata exists
in small stands or as
isolated trees, and broad leaved deciduous forests.
Mt Falakro(2232m)
N 41°17'40" E 24°05'50"
Mt Falakro is situated near the city of Drama, north eastern
Greece. It consists mainly of
crystalline-schist bedrock with some granites. The bedrock is build
up from limestones of the
marble series. On the rocky limestone areas the forest cover is
sparse and soil occurs only in
crevices. There are some rich forests of coniferous and broad
leaved species on the lower
altitudes.
We only paid a brief visit to this mountain once, August 2004, and
only found
Gentiana cruciata in flower on that occasion. Of course we hope to
visit this mountain again,
because it has a large concentration of rare plants.
Mt Grammos(2520m)
Mt
Kajmaktcalan N40°55'830" E21°47'230"
Mt Kajmaktcalan is part of the Voras range, and is situated close
to the Greek-Macedonian
border. Profitis Ilias summit(2524m) with its chapel is even
located right on the border.
Its not a spectacular mountain, but has some unusual features like
the schistose upper regions,
The soils here are acidic and wet, with many streams and bogs. Here
you can find a quite rich,
typical North Balkan flora.
There are 2 endemics to be found on Kajmaktcalan, the beautiful
Dianthus myrtinervius ssp.
caespitosus and Ranunculus cacuminis. Unfortunately we did not find
the latter on our visits
to Kajmaktcalan.
The lower slopes are covered with Chestnut, Beech and on the higher
parts, the for Greece
unusual, Pinus sylvestris forests.
Mt Olympos N40°05'170" E22°21'510"
Standing in isolation, situated on the borders of Thessaly and
Macedonia in Northern Greece,
it is one of the most interesting botanical localities of the
Balkans.
The combination of long geographical isolation, an unusual range of
climatic conditions,situated
close to the sea and the meeting of Mediterranean and Central
European floras, has resulted in
a unique vegetation.
Its a major refuge for some of the most exciting ancient endemic
species of Europe.
23 unique species are found in this relatively small area and all
being exclusively
Balkan species.
Mytikas summit(2918m) is the second highest in the Balkans. The
summits of Olympos form a
cone which has a diameter of about 20km, dissected by deep valleys.
Like the wide Enipeus
valley in the east and the narrower Papa Rema and Xerolakki ravines
in the north.
The eastern and northern slopes receive most moisture and have an
often forest vegetation.
Species of the alpine and upper montane zones, however, descend far
below their normal range
in these protected valleys. Olympos is almost exclusively
limestone, folded in the summit area,
and weathered into extensive screes in much of the alpine zone.
The limestone is very porous, and although there is quite an amount
of precipitation, the alpine
area becomes very dry in summer.
Mt Olympos Photo Album Updated 26-01-2008
Mt Ossa N39°47'760" E22°41'146"
Mt Ossa, also called Mt Kissavos, is situated south-east of Olympos
and also close to the sea.
On the seaward slopes dense forests of Castanea sativa, Taxus
baccata, Acer pseudoplatanus
and Aesculus hippocastanum occur. Above about 400m Beech becomes
more frequent, at higher
altitudes the Macedonian Fir mixed with Juniperus oxycedrus, Ostrya
carpinifolia, Crataegus
orientalis take over.
Below the summit are mountain meadows, while Palamiotis
summit(1976m) itself has rocky
outcrops and some screes and magnificent views over Mt Ossa,
Olympos and the Pilion
peninsula.
Mt Pangeo
N40°54'820" E24°05'450"
Mt Pangeo(1956m) is situated in the north east of Greece,
about 30km west of the city of
Kavala. This mountain came as a pretty surprise to us, we had not
expected such a rich flora!
On its slopes are extensive Beech and Chestnut forests and
pastures at higher altitudes.
In the rocky parts of the mountain there are cliffs with rare
endemic plants or plants with a
restricted distribution in the Balkan peninsula.
Mt Peristeri N39°41'090" E21°07'630"
Mt Peristeri(2295m), or Mt Lakmos, is situated south of the town of
Metsovon and belongs to
the South Pindos mountain range. The main rock in the area's
substrate is limestone, in some
places mixed with flysch.
Peristeri is a bare mountain, characterized by alpine and sub
alpine
pastures, rocky and stony
slopes, cliffs, mountain streams and springs. The mountain shows
strong erosion because of
intense deforestation.
Mt Pieria N40°13'760" E22°09'440"
Mt Pieria(2190m) is situated north west of Mt Olympos. It has
extensive forests. Because of
bad weather, we only paid a short visit by the end of May 2005 to
this mountain.
Mt Smolikas N40°05'340" E20°55'490"
This is one of the largest massifs in the Pindos range. It lies to
the north of the Timfi range,
separated from it by the deep valley of the Aoos river. Another
deep valley separates
Smolikas from Mt Grammos(2523m) on the Albanian border. A mountain
which we hope to
explore in the future.
Smolikas is of particular interest because its largely composed of
serpentinite, a rock type
rarely found in Greece, and which has a distinctive flora.
Pinus nigra dominates the forest from about 1000m, but is replaced
by Pinus heldreichii from
1500 to 1800m.
Mt Timfi N39°59'410" E20°47'520"
The Timfi massif lies south of Mt Smolikas. From Mt Smolikas the
dramatic, jagged skyline
can be viewed. Because of the limestone, there is a karstic
landscape with dry valleys and
spectacular gorges like the Vikos gorge. Also in this area are the
Papingo villages, reached
by a spectacular road. From Mikro Papingo it is possible to walk up
to the beautiful Timfi
range.
Mt Varnous N40°50'720" E21°15'340"
Mt Varnous(2177m) is also situated very close to the
Greek-Macedonian(FYROM)border,
not far from Lake Prespa. Its the home of endemic Dianthus
myrtinervius ssp. myrtinervius.
The silicious substrate and the continental climate have created
exceptional conditions for
the development of a rich and rare flora.
An other important feature of this area is the permanent flow of
the Aghios Germanos river.
Mt Vermion
N40°37'470" E21°56'510"
Mt Vermion is situated close to the town of Naoussa. The slopes are
densely forested with
Beech and stands of Oak. The lower parts have some serpentinite and
limestone, while the
higher parts are mostly limestone.