Hemerochory (Ancient Greek ἥμερος, hemeros: 'tame, ennobled, cultivated, cultivated' and Greek χωρίς choris: separate, isolated), or anthropochory, is the distribution of cultivated plants or their seeds and cuttings, consciously or unconsciously, by humans into an area that they could not colonize through their natural mechanisms of spread, but are able to maintain themselves without specific human help in their new habitat.

Hemerochory is one of the main propagation mechanisms of a plant. Hemerochoric plants can both increase and decrease the biodiversity of a habitat.

Hemerochoric plants are classified according to the manner of introduction into, for example:

Chronologically the hemerochoric plants are divided in:

Anthropochory is often used synonymously but does not mean exactly the same. Anthropochory is the spread by humans. The spread through domestic animals does not belong to the anthropochoric, but to the hemerochoric, because domestic animals belong to the human culture. Strictly speaking, anthropochoric means the spread through humans as a transport medium. These can also be native species that were either adapted from the outset to locations created by human cultural activity or have adapted to them afterwards; As a result, their area of distribution has often, but not always, increased.

Hemerochorous spread of plants through human cultural activity very likely already happened in the Stone Age, but demonstrably at the latest in antiquity, namely along old trade routes. Fruits such as apples and pears gradually made their way along the Silk Road from the area around the Altai Mountains to Greece and from there to the gardens of the Romans, who in turn brought these cultivated plants to Central Europe, and some of these plants were eventually able to survive outside the culture. Many useful plants, such as tomato, potato, pumpkin and French bean did not reach Central Europe until the 16th century, after the American continent was discovered, and are now grown worldwide.

In the last 400 to 500 years the spread has expanded through trade and military campaigns, through explorers and missionaries. The latter brought countless plants with them from their travels both out of an interest in exotic plants, which were often included in the plant collections of princely courts, and for purely scientific purposes. In the context of botanical studies, the interest was often in the possible healing effects of these plants, but also in the expansion of botanical knowledge, or the plants were only used for collecting (herbaria).

Some ornamental plants also came to Europe because they promised a lucrative business. This applies, for example, to the camellias, one of which is also grown as a tea plant in Japan and China. While this species turned out to be not cultivable in Central Europe, people very quickly discovered the aesthetic appeal of the other camellia species as an ornamental plant. Botanical gardens played a major role in the acclimatization of such plants from distant habitats.