Hunting for Narcissus in the Jerusalem Mountains

There are trips that are arranged at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens to go and look at wildflowers in their natural habitat and the purpose of this trip was to go and find Narcisssus up in the Jerusalem Mountains. So we hiked about a mile down the side of the mountain next to the old agricultural village of Matta. We did come across some Narcissus tazetta but they had already finished blooming. This is because it has been dry for a long time even though this is supposed to be the rainy season. If the rain had been here, the blooms would have lasted alot longer.

I was also told that you could always tell from a far enough distance where there is an old village (without being able to see the homes from afar......). It is because most of the trees of the Jerusalem Mountains are evergreen but the villages mostly planted deciduous trees around them for the shade that they provide in the hotter months. Here is the lovely tiny white Crocus hyemalis, the most common crocus in Israel, pushing it's way out of the forest floor. It is usually found growing in Mediterranean woodlands and shrub lands and is found in bloom anywhere from November to February.

The bloom itself is honey-scented and is insect pollinated.

Another bulb, or shall i say corm, that is out in full force is Cyclamen persicum.It is seen growing in so many different areas and happily reseeds itself in the smallest of places. Here it is growing in the crack of a rock.
Here at the bottom of the valley, a farmer has taken advantage of more farmable land. There was a 2 year old olive orchard that he was tending to.
While looking at the view, I was told to turn around and look at what was growing on a rocky outcrop. I was surprised to find a solitary bloom of an Iris. No other irises were found in the surrounding area.

Here is the lovely soft yellow bloom up close of Iris palaestina.

There was also Bellis sylvestris, called the Southern Daisy here, in bloom on the hillside. It is also commonly found in Mediterranean woodlands and shrub lands.
Though the blooms on most of the Bellis sylvestris were white there was a single bloom tinged with pink.

Just a little bit of the trees and shrubs of the mountainside.

Here is the large leafed Arum palaestinum, which has deep dark purple blooms in March and April.

Once we reached the bottom of the mountain we found a natural spring, which then made this area an obvious choice for the farmer to plant crops on.Though these palms aren't native, we came across a whole grove of them growing in straight lines. It turned out that there was a nursery that was run here on this land a long time ago and for some reason these were left behind.
Right next to the palm grove was this inconspicuous shrub that was about 4-5' high. I couldn't figure out the name because in Israel you have the latin name (which nobody knew), the common name (which changes depending on where you live) and the hebrew name (which everyone knew).I liked it's greenish yellow banana shaped flowers and

it's deep purple seeds.

In another area we came across the transparent seedpod of a Ricotia lunaria.

Here is the acorn of the Palestine Oak, Quercus callaprinos, which is one of the top 3 Oaks that grow in Israel. The other two Oaks are Quercus infectoria and Quercus ithaburensis. There is a mouse that eats some of this seed which helps the Oak to germinate faster. The mouse knows that the cap on the right end is the easiest way to get inside, by pulling it off and once the cap is off, the mouse has it's reward, but not the whole reward. Inside, the right half of the seed, closest to the cap, is sweet and then halfway through, the side on the left, the seed becomes bitter. The mouse eats the sweet part, and stops at the bitter end which contains the seed embryo, this then allows the remaining seed to be free to germinate.

Seed Collecting Trip

A few of the scholarship recipients got the chance to go on a seed collecting trip with the head scientist of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden. We drove about 25 minutes east out of Jerusalem to the edge of the desert to collect seed of native plants. Something that amazes me every time, is how the depth and perception of the desert just throws off your sense of scale. Below, look on the left side of the photo, and about halfway up you'll see the the light gray hill sloping down to the right. See the line of black dots on the hill? That was a herd of goats, who are commonly brought out into the desert to graze. If you notice the other two hills to the right of the one that they are on, you can tell that the goats graze there too because there isn't as much vegetation as the surrounding hills. These goats are herded by the Bedwins, which is a nomadic Arabic population. What throws me off though is that i could hear, very clearly, the goats bleating and hear the bells they wear jingling, and thought they weren't too far away. When i looked up all i could see was what looked like little black ants inching their way across the desert, they were much further than anticipated. This is the area where we started, in total we went to 2 places to collect. We were looking for colchicum seeds that would've been blooming on the hillside, especially looking next to rocks. Unfortunately we did not come across any colchicums but found seed from other plants to collect. We collected from Oreganum syriacum, which is a common spice plant that is used throughout Israel called Za'tar. It is used in hummus, on pita bread, and has many other uses.

The sun light plays beautifully off the hills at times. When seed is collected, 2x the amount needed is collected and this is for germinating plants for the botanical garden itself and the rest is for seed trading with other botanical gardens worldwide.

Ori, the head scientist, explained to us that the desert soil is very salty due to the salts in the rain that collect in the topsoil. Some shrubs that grow here too increase the salinity underneath the soil to prevent competition from other plants. pretty sneaky.. Though most of the vegetation in the desert looks bleak, look on the bottom left of the photo and you'll see a lush green strip. This is where there is a higher concentration of water due to it being at the bottom of deep valley.

There are tiny settlements, or towns, like on the top left, that are dotted throughout these areas.
On the way towards the Dead Sea, where some plants we wanted seed from were growing, we passed these farms with all these palms planted in rows. These are date palms, Phoenix dactylifera, and it is a highly productive crop that is exported out of Israel.
So this was our next location, a crossroads right next to the Dead Sea where an area where native plants have been planted.
Though this plant isn't native, we collected from it anyway. It is called Calotropis procera, and is actually native to India. It is extremely poisonous and is used to make candle wicks. Here is it's flower which is small in terms to the full size of the shrub.

The fluffy seeds emerge to be carried away by the wind.

Future generations on the go..

This is what the seeds look like when they are still packed inside the seedpod, not yet ready to go out, all organized and awaiting their release.

It also gets attacked by aphids really bad.And here was Abutilon hirtum which was about 7' tall.

Sometimes your lucky and get to see the many different stages of life on a plant.Here is the flower bud,which opens to a yellow bloom,

then has a seed pod that is flat and ridged,
to eventually opening to a ray like seed pod.

Our last stop was purely for taking in the view, which made us feel very small.

Can you see what's here? This is the wild Ibek, which is a mountain goat that lives in the desert. They were walking in front of the car, and I have been looking forward to seeing them since i got here. There are about 7 in the photo above.

There were adult and young Ibek.

Seeing them was a treat, and since it was mating season, well....... you get it. They got busy, and we took that as our cue to head off...

Mt. Scopus Botanical Gardens

Mount Scopus Botanical garden is situated in east Jerusalem and was established in 1920. It is attached to the Hebrew University and sits atop the high vantage point of Mt. Scopus. From the this vantage point your able to look back at the Old City of Jerusalem in the distance with the beautiful golden architecture of the Dome of the Rock, looking exquisite with the fall color of the moment. Mount Scopus is important georgraphically when it comes to rainfall. This is because when it does rain, with the rainy season starting in November, it is the divider between where it flows to. The rain that falls on the west side of Mt. Scopus flows towards the Mediterranean Sea, which would be the photo above. If the rain falls on the east side, it flows through the Judean desert, as seen above, towards the Dead Sea. Since the ground is so dry most of the time, it is actually dangerous when rainstorms happen due to the ground not being able to absorb the water quickly enough and thereby creating flash floods, especially closer to the Dead Sea. In the photo you are able to see part of the Israeli West Bank Border, which is the line which runs through the shaded out part of the mountains above.

In the actual gardens, it is set up to display the different native plant communities that exist within Israel. It is amazing though, at how well plants can adapt to their surrounding environment. Let me explain. Though you have the same 4 seasons here, the plants are on a different schedule. With the summers being so hot here, most plants go dormant and disappear to escape the blazing sun, with most of the bulbs that will and annuals only beginning to germinate when the rains come, which is now, during the fall season. So while the deciduous trees and shrubs are now dropping their foliage, the bulbs and annuals are waking up, such as the wild Lupines. So most plants bloom starting now and will come to a stop once the summer comes round again. This is also when we plant out the ornamental annuals- due to the winters still being somewhat considerably warmer.
Here is the discreet bloom of Cyclamen persica which is out now. This plant has so much genetic diversity, which is obvious in all of its intricately patterned foliage which differs from one plant to the next. . It is discreet in the sense that it is so close to the ground that it is very easily overlooked. The corms that the blooms and foliage come from can reach the size of a softball, and this plant happily seeds itself everywhere.

As you can see here in the nook of a rock, this cyclamen has happily decided to grow, and is extremely self sufficient.
Here is Pancratium sickenbergeri which is now in seed which grows on the coastal dunes of the Mediterranean. It's seeds, which are inside this black casing, are devised to float due to a spongy layer that is between the outer black part and the actual seed. This helps to ensure future generations settling onto different parts of the Mediterranean coast by floating to new destinations.These is a demonstration area to show how people used to have their allotment gardens. The beds were laid out in a very simple fashion and these gardens integrated vegetables, fruit, and small orchards. What I found interesting was this small stone building which was common when these allotment gardens existed. These were used as a means of shelter to help watch over your crops when they were close to harvest time. What people would do was stay in the bottom part of it in the cooler months to protect yourself from the cold weather and in the warmer months they would stay in the top part, which was covered with material to protect oneself from the harsh sun. This was done so you could be there to make sure no one stole or looted the fruits of your labor, which happened quite often. We were able to see where they store and clean seeds that have been collected.
Sometimes plant names make me laugh, like Aparagus horridus. Bad!Bad asparagus! It just gives a funny visual to me of the one that we love to eat. The Hebrew University was right next door to the gardens and the campus grounds were very lush and inviting. Ficus pumila scrambles up the sides of some of the buildings.

There were sculptures by different artists that were situated troughout the campus too.

A mix of opuntia and geraniums.

Ahh, fall color.