The Goulandris Museum of Natural History is a museum in Kifisia, a northeastern suburb of Athens, Greece. It was founded by Angelos Goulandris and Niki Goulandris in 1965 in order to promote interest in the natural sciences, to raise the awareness of the public, in general, and in particular to call its attention to the need to protect Greece's natural wildlife habitats and species in the danger of extinction.
The museum includes large collections of insects, mammals, birds, reptiles, shells, rocks, minerals and fossils, from the rich natural wildlife of the Greek territory. The botanical collections number over 200.000 species of plants, among which there are 145 newly discovered ones,[when?] which have been recorded thanks to the museum's research. The kernel of the botanical collection was formed when it acquired the collection of Constantine Goulimis, the author of Wild Flowers of Greece that was illustrated by Niki Goulandris. In the museum's laboratories, scientific research is being carried out in the areas of ecology, botany, zoology, geology, palaeontology and biotechnology. In the exhibition rooms are presented in detail the variety and interdependence of the biocommunities and the floral, animal and geological wealth of Greece.
A display of a giraffe inside Goulandris Museum of Natural History.
The Goulandris Museum of Natural History also functions as a complementary educational institution for all levels of education. Its activities include further education programmes, seminars, lectures, the publication of books and other material, and itinerant exhibitions on crucial environmental issues in Greece and abroad. Its publications include a scientific journal, the Annales Musei Goulandris (1973–). The Museum is linked to international organizations and to Institutes of Higher Education.
Some of the most important exhibits of the museum are the Zoology Room, the Palaeontology Room and the display of bivalve molluscs from various parts of the world.
In 2010, rhizomes of Iris hellenica (found in the mountains of the Peloponnese) were given the garden of the Goulandris Natural History Museum,[1] who had funded Dionysios Mermygkas, to study the plants of the mountains. The iris grew well vegetatively for a year, but failed to flower. Unfortunately they did not survive the following year, but they survived in Copenhagen (who also received rhizomes).[2]
Iris is a flowering plant genus of 310 accepted species with showy flowers. As well as being the scientific name, iris is also widely used as a common name for all Iris species, as well as some belonging to other closely related genera. A common name for some species is flags, while the plants of the subgenus Scorpiris are widely known as junos, particularly in horticulture. It is a popular garden flower.
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, is the national natural history museum of France and a grand établissement of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Jardin des Plantes on the left bank of the River Seine. It was formally founded in 1793, during the French Revolution, but was begun even earlier in 1635 as the royal garden of medicinal plants. The museum now has 14 sites throughout France.
Sir Frederick McCoy, was an Irish palaeontologist, zoologist, and museum administrator, active in Australia. He is noted for founding the Botanic Garden of the University of Melbourne in 1856.
Iris versicolor is also commonly known as the blue flag, harlequin blueflag, larger blue flag, northern blue flag, and poison flag, plus other variations of these names, and in Great Britain and Ireland as purple iris.
William Thomas Stearn was a British botanist. Born in Cambridge in 1911, he was largely self-educated and developed an early interest in books and natural history. His initial work experience was at a Cambridge bookshop, but he also had an occupation as an assistant in the university botany department. At the age of 29, he married Eldwyth Ruth Alford, who later became his collaborator.
Niki Goulandris was a Greek philanthropist and an accomplished botanical painter.
Museums Victoria is an organisation that includes a number of museums and related bodies in Melbourne. These include Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum, Scienceworks, IMAX Melbourne, a research institute, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facility in Melbourne's City of Merri-bek.
The Finnish Museum of Natural History, established in 1988, is a research institution under the University of Helsinki in Finland, based in Helsinki, Finland. It is a natural history museum responsible for the national botanical, zoological, geological and paleontological collections, which consist of samples from around the world. The collections serve scientific, public informational and educational purposes.
The Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region.
The Muséum des sciences naturelles d'Angers is a municipal museum in Angers. Dedicated to Natural History, the Muséum d'Angers houses in its collections about 530,000 objects, including 3,000 birds, 20,000 shells, 50,000 fossils, 80,000 insects and 350,000 herbarium samples, as well as hundreds of specimens taxidermised or in liquid, skeletons, minerals, technical instruments and Documents. The Muséum d'Angers receives annually about 20,000 visitors, as well as school groups, interns, researchers and volunteers.
The Natural History Museum of Erfurt is a natural history museum in Erfurt, Germany.
Constantine Goulimis (1886–1963) was a lawyer and successful amateur botanist. He discovered several species of Greek plants.
The Estonian Museum of Natural History is the Estonian national museum for natural history. It is situated in Tallinn's Old Town.
Iris aphylla is a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Iris, and in the section Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from Asia to Europe. It is found in Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, Former Yugoslavia, Italy, Romania and France. It has dark green or bright green, sword-shaped, long grass-like leaves, that die/fade away in the winter. It also has a slender stem, with several branches and green and purplish spathes. It has 3–5 large flowers, in shades of bright purple, purple, violet, dark blue, blue-violet and dark violet, which bloom between spring and early summer. Occasionally, they re-bloom in the autumn, before the seed capsule is formed. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. There is one known subspecies Iris aphylla subsp. hungarica Hegi.
Iris glaucescens is a plant species in the genus Iris and subgenus Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, found in Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. It has blue-grey sickle-shaped leaves, slender stem, and spring flowers in blue-violet, pale violet, lilac-purple, to deep purple, to light bluish, and almost white shades. It is rarely cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. It was merged with another similar iris in the region, and became a synonym of Iris scariosa, before being divided into two separate species again, although some sources still call it a synonym of Iris scariosa.
Iris hellenica is a plant species in the genus Iris and the subgenus Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from Saitas Mountain, in the Peloponnese Region of Greece. It has grey-green, sickle-shaped leaves, a tall slender stem, 2–3 white, lavender-blue, lilac or purple flowers and orange/purple beards. It was thought once to be a hybrid species of Iris germanica which also grows in the same area, before being separated into 2 species. It has only recently been published and is rarely cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions.
Iris kashmiriana is a plant species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from Kashmir, India. It has straight, sword-shaped, glaucous leaves, tall, thick stem with up 2 short branches, which hold 2–3 flowers, which can be white, cream or pale blue, lilac, lavender or blue-purple. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions, although in Kashmir, it is also planted on graves.
P. Arne K. Strid is a Swedish botanist and expert on Greek flora.
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