The Greek Herbalist

In this episode Jason König interviews Maria Christodoulou about her work as a herbalist and about the mountain plants of Greece.

Maria is a clinical herbalist. She runs ancient herbal medicine courses and herbal tours around Greece. Her book Herbs of Greece: Four Seasons of Ancient Plants for Modern Health is forthcoming with Timber Press in 2027. You can see more about Maria’s work at her website.

We talk first about Maria’s experience of moving to Greece as an adult, encountering a landscape she had heard about from a distance throughout her childhood.

Maria then talks about the educational goals at the heart of her work as The Greek Herbalist, and her interest in the continuities between ancient and modern botanical knowledge. She gives us a glimpse of the research processes involved in her forthcoming book, which has involved immersing herself in the work of the ancient medical writer Dioscorides and travelling around Greece to find photos of all fifty of her plants.

Flowering hellebore (Helleborus orientalis Lam) at the Diomedes Botanic Garden in Athens

Maria then offers two case studies from the mountains, discussing the physiological effects and cultural significance of hellebore and mountain tea, and their role in ancient scientific writing.

Mountain tea (Sideritis spp.)

Finally Maria offers some reflections on the threats facing the botanical heritage of the Greek mountains, from over-development, and on why education matters for helping people to understand and protect these places.