Although organising tours in Greece takes most of our time, we also try to find some new
species we did not see before.
Last year our focus was on finding Omphalodes runemarkii and Paeonia mascula ssp hellenica.
Omphalodes runemarkii was described as a new species quite recent, in 2005 by well known
botanists Arne Strid and Kit Tan from Denmark.
O.runemarkii grows in the southern parts of the Parnon(as) mountain range in the south east of
the Peloponnese peninsula. Being cultivated at the Göteborg botanical garden in Sweden first, its now also
available for the garden under the tradename of Omphalodes runemarkii "Blue Eyes".
Also in 2005, Achillea occulta was described as a new species in these mountains.
Paeonia mascula ssp hellenica is known from the Taygetos mountains(Peloponnese) and Evia and
Andros islands.
We had to return to the spot where we found it on Mt Taygetos several times before we finally
found them flowering.
Regards, Klaas.
