Giorgos Sfikas

George Sfikas was born in Athens in 1939, where he completed his primary and secondary education. He pursued a career as a graphic designer and worked in various advertising agencies until 1980. From 1970, he began focusing on ecology, writing about Greek nature, and painting plants, animals, habitats, and traditional settlements. To date, he has authored twenty books on Greek nature. Alongside these endeavors, the author has become an excellent scholar of Greek flora. His plant collection from across Greece includes around 12,000 plant specimens and many thousands of slides featuring wildflowers and habitats. He has discovered several new plant species for science, two of which have been named after him (Viola sfikasiana and Colchicum sfikasianum). In 1992, he established the "Anthoforos" center, aimed at protecting Greek flora, which also houses the complete archive of the 5,700 species and subspecies of plants in the country. In the field of illustration, G. Sfikas has illustrated the "Phytology" volume for Ekdotiki Athinon, published numerous series of postcards and posters featuring Greek wildflowers, birds, and traditional settlements, painted collectible plates and other porcelain items, and designed calendars for banks and other organizations.