Malta, one of the new members of the European Union, is known for its long and colourful history. In contrast, its plant diversity has been largely neglected internationally. Hence, we focus our floristic, taxonomical, ecologial and structural research on the three Maltese Islands which have a surface area of about 316 km². Despite this small domain, there are actually some 800-900 indigenous plant species (including a number of endemic species), about 250 naturalized aliens, and approximately 500 ornamentals grown in public places, representing the huge diversity of the Flora of Malta.