Spring. Every year, it returns like a miracle and Israel is carpeted with wildflowers. There are nearly 3,000 types of wild plants in this tiny land, a wonderful profusion, among the most abundant on earth. Israel boasts a variety of different ecological systems \u2013 deserts and marshes, high mountains, dense forests and open fields, with wildflowers to suit each habitat.<\/p>\n
Wildflowers are protected in Israel and nature reserves prohibit the picking of any flowers, even the most common, which helps them to propagate over wider areas. In turn, this brings the sunbirds, which feast on their nectar.<\/p>\n
The Song of Songs, which we read every Passover, is a most beautiful love poem. King Solomon wrote it as a dialogue between a young shepherd and his beloved: \u201cRise up, my love, my fair one and come away \/ For lo, the winter is past \/ The rain is over and gone \/ The flowers appear on the earth \/ The time of singing is come \/ And the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flowers he refers to, nitzanim<\/em>, still carpet the fields \u2013 shiny red poppies flaunting scarlet beauty in the grass.<\/p>\n In Jerusalem Forest, delicate cyclamens bloom in the crevices between the rocks. Called Solomon\u2019s Crown (in Hebrew), they lift their pink, cream or lilac heads on slender stalks. Clumps of wild violets, the dew shimmering like diamonds, add their touch of magic.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s rainy season, mid-October to late March, leaves a bequest of green. Sharon Valley is dotted with tulips and narcissus. \u201cI am the rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys\u201d \u2013 it is believed that King Solomon was referring to the magnificent black tulips of the Galilee.<\/p>\n In spring, even the weeds in Israel are pretty \u2013 the milk vetch, which is a thistle, adds purple blooms to the roadside. The rockrose is abundant in forest glades and the orange ranunculus bursts into bloom. Like its velvety cousin, the anemone, it is a protected wildflower in Israel.<\/p>\n The perfume of daffodils \u2013 which suffused the winter \u2013 still wafts on the breeze and the white, cream, yellow and blue noses of lupins are pushing through the soil. Oleanders are in bud, growing wild by the banks of the River Jordan and near streams in Galilee, promising a burst of summer beauty. And the blue statica reminds us that we, too, have a Mediterranean coast like the famed Riviera. This lovely sea plant flowers from mid-spring to mid-summer, when its corolla drops off and only the sepal remains.<\/p>\n Who says Israel has almost no natural resources? When you see the splendour in the grass of the land\u2019s spring glory, the wildflowers glowing like jewels, you\u2019ll echo the poet\u2019s words: \u201cHad I but two loaves of bread \/ I would sell one of them \/ And buy white hyacinths to feed my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n Dvora Waysman<\/strong> is a Jerusalem-based author. She has written 14 books, including <\/em>The Pomegranate Pendant, which was made into a movie, and her latest novella,<\/em> Searching for Sarah. She can be contacted at dwaysman@gmail.com<\/a> or through her blog dvorawaysman.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spring. Every year, it returns like a miracle and Israel is carpeted with wildflowers. There are nearly 3,000 types of wild plants in this tiny land, a wonderful profusion, among the most abundant on earth. Israel boasts a variety of different ecological systems \u2013 deserts and marshes, high mountains, dense forests and open fields, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[2845,9789,4330,2722,9790],"class_list":["post-34512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","tag-environment","tag-flowers","tag-israel","tag-nature","tag-spring"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}