Cretan Date Palm

''Phoenix theophrasti'', the Cretan Date Palm, is a palm native to the eastern Mediterranean, with a very restricted distribution, confined to southern Greece, a few sites on Crete and nearby islands as well as some places on the Turkish coast. In Turkey, it is the only native palm species; all the others—although much more common—were introduced.

The specific epithet ''theophrasti'' was chosen by the Swedish botanist Werner Greuter in 1967 for the fact that Theophrastus, the ancient Greek ‘father of botany,’ had described several types of palms, including one from Crete.