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Aim  To investigate how plant diversity of whole islands (‘gamma’) is related to alpha and beta diversity patterns among sampling plots within each island, thus exploring aspects of diversity patterns across scales.

Location  Nineteen islands of the Aegean Sea, Greece.

Methods  Plant species were recorded at both the whole‐island scale and in small 100 m² plots on each island. Mean plot species richness was considered as a measure of alpha diversity, and six indices of the ‘variation’‐type beta diversity were also applied. In addition, we partitioned beta diversity into a ‘nestedness’ and a ‘replacement’ component, using the total species richness recorded in all plots of each island as a measure of ‘gamma’ diversity. We also applied 10 species–area models to predict the total observed richness of each island from accumulated plot species richness.

Results  Mean alpha diversity was not significantly …