All over Greece, from the very north to the extreme south, on the mainland and islands alike, in villages or country towns, one finds magnificent, age-old plane trees draped gracefully over churchyards or main squares. In the squares, where all the cafés and tavernas arrange their tables on hot summer days, these noble trees provide cool and pleasant shade. Plane trees also grow naturally along the banks of any river or stream, pond, lake, or spring, domi- nating the landscape. Indeed, it seems that God offered this tree as a gift to Greek nature!