At the beginning of every summer, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center is surrounded by flowering Oleanders, forming an impressive colorful fence.
Oleander is a perennial evergreen ornamental shrub, of the family Apocynaceae, that can reach a height of 2 to 6 meters. Its leaves reach 12 cm in length and 2 cm in width. They grow in pairs or three, linear to lanceolate, acuminate, dark green, glossy on top and dull light on the bottom. There are over 400 varieties of Oleander with different colors such as white, cream, red, pink, orange. Many varieties even have double flowers. The fruits of the plant are reminiscent of those of the pea but are much larger in dark brown. The pericarps contain seeds provided with tufted feathers, scattered by the wind. It has soft stems and twigs and releases a white, milky liquid when injured.
It grows in sunny places with wet substrates, such as in riverbeds, streams, and rivers. It also withstands slightly brackish soils. It is highly drought tolerant and can also be found in semi-arid soils. It propagates very easily by cuttings. In Greece, it is native, as in many other parts of the world. The plant is highly toxic. The toxicity of Oleander is due to the substance nerine and aims to protect the plant from animal attacks.
Oleander originates from Colchis, east of the Black Sea. The scientific - Latin name of the plant is Nerium Oleander, and derives from the Greek language, specifically Nerium comes from the word water, as the plant is hydrophilic. The second part Oleander comes from the words ὀλλύω (meaning destroy - kill) and ανἠρ (meaning man) describing very vividly the danger of the plant. According to others, of course, the second part derives from the similarity of the leaves of the plant with those of the olive tree (olea).
The plant is known since antiquity. According to Dioscorides, when consumed with wine, the leaves and flowers of Oleander could save you from the bite of poisonous insects or reptiles. Historical reports show that the Mesopotamians, in the 15th century Α.D., believed in its healing properties. The Babylonians used a mixture of Oleander and licorice to treat the "wine headache" while the Persians probably poisoned Alexander the Great's horses by putting oleander leaves in their water. Today, Oleander is used in homeopathy for heart problems and is the flower symbol of Hiroshima, as it was the one that flourished after the atomic bomb destroyed the city.
