Blooming in December: Cyclamen – Rakefet – רקפת

December 2019 Kislev תש"פ

What’s in bloom in Israel this month?

Cyclamen – Rakefet – רקפת

Many moons ago I worked in a flower shop in Jerusalem. One day an unhappy customer walked into the shop carrying a rakefet (cyclamen).  She wasn’t happy because it wasn’t flowering anymore. I offered all sorts of potential solutions despite not having a clue what was wrong with it.  She left quite unsatisfied and I felt fairly helpless.  Twenty years later I now have the answer for her - it simply was no longer the season.  As she is also now a very dear friend I hope she reads this and finally gets her answer.

As I hinted at in my November blog the first rakefet leaves had just started appearing and thanks to the heavy rainfall there are more and more peeping out by the day.  The rakefet leaves are the most beautiful leaves in nature because of their intricate patterns.  This pattern provides them with their own identikit.  Why do prisoners have their fingerprints taken?  Because each person has a unique fingerprint that they can be identified by.  Every cyclamen plant has its own individual ‘fingerprint’. Many plants can be growing alongside each other and all the leaves coming out of one bulb will look totally different from the set of leaves coming out of the bulb next to it.  A good mindfulness exercise is to sit down next to a crop of plants and compare the patterns in the leaves.

In the past the young leaves were used like grape vine leaves and would be stuffed with meat and rice however it now has protected flower status and therefore picking them is forbidden.

Thank goodness the rain has started to fall seriously which is about time.  At the same time the rakefet is starting to flower producing a brown reddish stalk supporting a flower with petals that are a strong pink at the bottom and then they change to different hues of white to pink and every shade in between.  This flower needs to be very clever in order to survive the strong winter rains.  In theory these windy stormy days would easily wash away the delicate pollen in the center of the flower.  In order to outwit the rain our little rakefet flower therefore grows upside down.  If you look into the middle of the petals you will be surprised to notice that there is no pollen there.  In order to see the pollen you have to delicately turn the flower upside down or lie on the floor and look underneath the flower.  Most of my blogs will relate at some point to how the flower adapts to survive, spread its seed further, or beat the competition.  It is actually one of my greatest fascinations in nature and it has also helped further the whole scientific field of biomimicry – using tried and tested nature to find sustainable solutions to human problems.

In my June blog about the caper bush I told my first King Solomon fable.  He was known to be a great nature lover as described in the book of Kings “He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls.” Kings 1, 4:33.

Here is my favorite story about King Solomon:

It was decided that King Solomon needed a new crown and because he loved the wild flowers so much he went for a walk to choose a flower that would inspire him.  He walked among so many beautiful flowers in an array of bright colours and they all lifted their heads up high so he would see them better and choose one of them.  None of them quite touched him and he carried on wandering getting quite despondent.  Finally he spotted one hidden among the rocks in a delicate shade of pink, hanging its head.  He whispered to it “you are a beautiful flower, so gentle and modest, I will be happy to design my crown to look like you so that whenever I wear it I will remember to be gentle and modest like you.” 

This story will ring true with teachers who tend to choose the child who isn’t shouting out the answer or putting his hand up into the teachers face, instead choosing the one standing quietly and patiently.

The cyclamen season will last for a while now, sometimes starting as early as October and lasting until May.  It is a very common flower found in every part of the country and at Neot Kedumim we will have carpets of them in the following months. They tend to prefer some shade, growing well in the forests and as mentioned in the story they often grow under the shadow of rocks and sometimes even out of rocks as their bulbs wedge in the cracks.  For many years I have had a cyclamen growing out of the drainpipe in my garden but it hasn’t made an appearance this year and every day I eagerly search it out.(Update: it's definitely disappeared, probably washed out by heavy rains, and I hope it has gone to the cyclamen farm in the sky).

In my November blog I mentioned the crocus which wasn’t to be confused with the sitvanit hayore.  This is now blossoming everywhere and it is always out just in time for the festival of Hanukkah.  Inside our homes we light Chanukah candles while in nature this beautiful white flower with its deep yellowy orange center has earned itself the nickname of ‘the first Chanukah candle’.

Photos: Yasmin Maissel

Blooming in November: Meadow Saffron - סתוונית היורה

November 2019 Cheshvan תש"פ

What’s in bloom in Israel this month?

Meadow Saffron, Colchicum stevenii, סתוונית היורה

ונתתי מטר ארצכם בעתו יורה ומלקוש"  דברים י"א י"ד”

"I will give the rain of your land in its season, the early rain and the late rain” Deutoronomy 11:14

What does a nice English girl know about the first rains?  Growing up in England it rains all the time.  The first rain there is the rain that falls on the 1st January and the last one is on the 31st December, very simple.

I made Aliyah in the winter of 1991/1992 which some will remember as one of the worst winters in many years.  Winter came very late that year however it came with a bang.  I was living in Arad, a city in the desert not known for its heavy rainfall.  The first time the rain fell there the children from the houses surrounding our campus were dancing in the streets.  Everyone came out of their front doors to feel those first drops and breathe in that wonderful smell released by a first rain.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  In London we just mutter under our breath, put up the umbrella and carry stoically on.

I learnt a new word in ulpan (Hebrew class) that day - the Yoreh - the early rain.

However not all rain is the Yoreh.  A heavy rain that very occasionally falls in August or September is not necessarily the Yoreh.  This is because one rain too early is not the right timing for crops - mostly wheat and barley - that are planted only after Succot. (the feast of tabernacles)  We start to pray for rain only on Shemini Atzeret, which comes at the end of the Succot festival also known as the festival for gathering in last year’s crops.  This is because formerly this is the start of the new agricultural cycle.

Six months have gone by since the last rains in April and the land has turned brown, covered in a fine layer of dust just waiting for the rains to wake up all the wild seeds and to wash everything clean.  Watch how the first rains change the color of the evergreens in the landscape from monotonous brown grey to different hues of greens.

This year has been unusual.  The first rains came at the end of October but since then we have had a heat wave with a hot dry wind from the East, (sponsored by Lobello?) possibly drying up any seed which may have sprouted from the ground.  There is one type of life form that will flourish despite this.  These are the geophytes (first mentioned in my September blog on the squill).  These underground bulbs have stored the rains from last year’s amazing winter and we are now seeing the results this winter.

This first rain was enough to kick start the Sitvanit HaYoreh, the meadow saffron.  While walking my dog in the forest it has been a delight to stumble across these delicate little flowers peeping up out of the forest floor.  They are a stark contrast to the thick layer of brown pine needles. The flower is varying shades of pink with a very strong yellow stamen (pollen) verging on orange. It is quite unusual in that there is no green stalk and no leaves so the flower literally grows straight out of the ground and the stalk is the same color as the petals.  Growing up to 5 centimetres high it stands out because the ground is still bare of any other greenery and this is important as most pollinators can’t see pink or red and are therefore attracted to this new growth.

Sitvanit comes from the Hebrew word stav, which means autumn. Literally the autumn of the first rains, a beautiful name for a beautiful flower. 

In English the meadow saffron is also referred to as the autumn crocus but amusingly it’s not actually from the crocus family and it’s not the origin of saffron!

Another name is ‘naked ladies’ because the flower grows before any leaves appear, similar to the squill.  The French call it the dames san chemise (ladies without a chemise) and in German it is known as nakende huren – naked whores!! The UK plantlife website refers to it as “A femme fatale of the wild flower world, as beautiful as it is deadly”.  The femme fatale is referring to its beauty but it is also one of the most poisonous flowers. In Arabic it is called the witch's oil lamp. It contains colchicines which are highly poisonous and are said to alter your DNA but like other toxins are used in medication, in this case for the treatment of gout (wasn’t that something that old English kings suffered from eating too much meat and drinking too much wine?) and rheumatic and arterial diseases.

Israel Mint Collection 

The poison deters most animals from eating it except our very determined largest rodent – the porcupine. In order to reach his potential weight of 17 kg and up to 1 meter in length he will chomp his way through just about anything. At least he doesn’t suffer from gout. I actually found porcupine poop next to the sitvanit but my photographer (my daughter Yasmin) refused to photograph it!

As November and this blog comes to a close I eagerly await some more rain as the landscape is again parched. However I have spotted the first leaves of the cyclamen peaking through and that is a teaser for my next blog.  Watch this space!

Photos: Yasmin Maissel

Blooming in September: Sea Squill – חצב מצוי

September 2019 Elul תשע"ט

What’s in bloom in Israel this month?

Sea Squill or Medicinal Squill, חצב מצוי, Chatzav Matzui

Each stage of Aliyah brings its new challenges.  I remember when the children started kindergarten it involved a whole new vocabulary.  They would come home from nursery in mid September talking about the signs that  Autumn is a coming - the Nachlieli (wagtail) bird that is making Aliyah for the winter and the Chatzav (white squill) that is growing out of the dry soil. It took me many years to realize that the squill doesn't appear in time for Kindergarten starting but is already in full bloom by mid August in some places.

The squill appears without any prior warning.  One day there's no sign of it, no x marks the spot, no giant bush about to bloom, and the next it's waving its white head merrily in the air.  It is an incredible sight especially as one’s eyes are weary of the endless sea of dry shrub, thorns and dusty brown that typify the end of the Israeli summer.

Even if you don’t go into nature, a short trip on Road 6 is enough to catch a glimpse of the squills waving at you from the sides of the road.  Many people think it is accidental that so many of them happen to be growing along the way.  However this is actually the result of intense planning.  Dafna Helvitz, the agronomist in charge of planting at Park Ariel Sharon where I also guide, and the ecologist Aviva Rabinowitz z"l were responsible for the gardening along Route 6 and together with Zionseeds they collected bulbs that would have been destroyed and replanted them there. Worth making a road trip!

The squill flowers through August and September and it has up to 250 small blossoms which gradually open in groups of 30 from the bottom up.  Because it flowers when most others don’t it doesn’t have much competition from pollinators! As we know monopolies have an advantage. It can grow as tall as 2 meters and its height is its most significant feature. 

Why would the squill grow so tall? What is its benefit?  I recommend you step outside and feel the change in the air. By the beginning of September the unbearable heat I experience while guiding becomes tolerable due to a gentle  breeze and even an occasional strong wind. The squill uses this breeze to wave back and forth and thereby spread its seed as far as possible, the taller it is the further its seed will fall. Each plant  employs its own method for spreading its seeds.

Once the flower dies there is no more sign of it, however it hasn’t really disappeared without a trace.  The squill has actually sprouted out of a bulb hidden underground.  This bulb is the biggest bulb in Israel and can grow up to 25 cm in diameter. One mustn’t touch it though as it is very poisonous and  you need to wear gloves in order to dig them up or plant them. I remember the funny sight of Elizabeth, my children’s school nature teacher, lugging these giant bulbs to the school garden with her gloves on. When I mentioned the chatzav to my daughter her first reaction was "Elizabeth says they are poisonous". That was ten years after learning that! It is actually one of the rare poisonous plants in Israel.

A plant that grows out of a bulb is called a geophyte, basically an underground storage system to help it survive in difficult conditions such as excessive heat or cold, lack of light or drought.  The squill bulb definitely helps it get through the intensely hot and dry Israeli summer.  This bundle of underground nutrients is very attractive to wild animals, especially wild boar and gazelles, which is why it excretes toxins to make it inedible to others.

One of my favourite sights is when the first squill leaves peep out of the ground in November. The leaves are very large and lush with a waxy sheen, certainly enough to tempt a leaf starved herbivore like the gazelle.  The gazelle knows that the plant is toxic and will therefore only nibble the leaves until halfway down.  By February all the leaves in Neot Kedumim are left with a half eaten look.

Our sages mention that the squill is what Joshua used as a way to mark boundaries between neighbouring farmers and tribes in the land of Israel.  Its timing is perfect as its flowers and then leaves poke out just in time for ploughing the fields for the wheat and barley season.  Also its toxicity can cause blistering of the skin which might deter people from sabotaging the natural fencing. It can be used in small amounts to produce a medicine for certain heart conditions and also as a poison for getting rid of rodents!

Winter Tourists at Neot Kedumim will always enquire about the impressive looking squill leaves.  However I have to tell them that in order to see the flower they need to return in September, which is a long wait.  Nature requires a lot of patience.  These leaves will gather the nutrition required from the sun and rain to fill the bulb until they wilt at the end of spring.  They will then disappear without a trace until the flower peeps out anew in August.  Those of us lucky to live here can get to see both phenomena.

For nature watchers the squill is definitely the sign for the new year, changing of the seasons, new start, new school year, Rosh Hashana and many other beginnings.  I came across this poem in Hebrew and with these words I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.   

White squill is flowering  - it’s whole being is flowers

“What hint does the squill give me? Each one of your lovely flowers”

“I’ll hint at a year of plenty – a year of consolation

l”ll hint at a year of satiety – peace between the nations”

Author Unknown

Photos by Yasmin Maissel

Blooming in June: Caper Bush – צלף קוצני

June 2019 Sivan תשע"ט

What’s in bloom in Israel this month?

Common Caper - צלף קוצני - Capparis Spinosa

It’s dry dry dry out there.  We are just a month after the terrible forest fires that swept through Ben Shemen Forest and tragically burnt down Moshav Mevo Modiin.  Neot Kedumim was also affected by the same fire as it crossed the 443 road and started to singe the edges of the reserve.  Our amazing staff fought off the fire and extinguished it with their feet, hoses and a tiny fire truck.  Their perseverance, heroic deeds and dedication ensured that Neot Kedumim is still there in all its glory.  I thank them all.

Perseverance is often used when describing the caper bush. This is a dense and thorny shrub that sprouts its branches, flowers and fruit only after the last spring rains have ended and often out of walls and rocks.  When everything else is parched and weary under the burning sun, the caper bush pushes out what I believe is the one of the most beautiful flowers in the world. It has a white backdrop of petals that provide a frame for the delicate tendrils which start as yellow and gradually turn into pink and then purple.

Perseverance can also used to describe the family bearing the Caper name in the Bible.  The Tzlofchad women were without a father and as women were not able to inherit a piece of land in Eretz Israel. They came forward and asked for what they believed to be theirs and their perseverance was rewarded by a change of law to allow women to inherit.

The flower flops after 11:00am

The new flower opens after 18:oo

Let’s look closer, not just at the beautiful flower but also the branch.  When starting at the top of the branch the bud starts to form and then every day the bud gets bigger and bigger until the fifth to sixth day.  This is when the flower opens.  Now let’s check the clock! Up until about 11 o’clock in the morning the flower will be fully open and in its full glory. However if you slept in and only see the flower later then the caper flower will have wilted and all those beautifully  erect tendrils will now be flopped down on  the petals. I know how it feels while guiding in the heat as we often wilt after 11am but we persevere on.  The flower opens at about 6pm the evening before and lasts about 16 hours total.  Like us, it likes to come out when the sun is going down and it is cooler and the flower holds out only until the heat builds up late morning. That flower will not open again and that evening the next bud in turn will open up. A new flower every day!

In the Talmud Rabbi Gamliel taught his students that “in the future the trees will produce fruit every day” (Yehezkel 17:23) but one of his students laughed and said ‘doesn’t it state “There is nothing new under the sun”? (Kohelet 1:9).  As proof Rabbi Gamliel then led his students out to see the daily new caper fruit forming.

When we think of capers, we think of the little intensely pickled green balls that are often served with smoked salmon and cream cheese.  These capers are not the fruit but are actually the bud of the flower that are picked on the fourth day of growth (remember a day or so later they will already blossom).  The actual fruit of the caper bush grows after the flower has finished and they look like mini oval watermelons. Both the fruit and the bud have to be pickled otherwise they are very bitter.  As well as being delicious with smoked salmon they are good in salads on pizza or with fish.  They are full of vitamins A, B, E and K and good for clotting blood and healthy bones. 

Buds awaiting picking and pickling!

Picking the buds or fruit or requires perseverance and care as the caper bush has nasty little thorns which curl inwards and scratch you as you take your hand out of the bush. These thorns are mentioned in one of the many tales relating to King Solomon.  While eating at a banquet he started to choke on a fish bone.  All the plants tried to save him but it was the caper with its hooked thorn that finally managed to hook the bone from his throat.  He blessed the caper and said that from then on it would grow in the holiest places in the world.  Next time you are at the Kotel check out the caper bushes growing out of the wall.

So you want to pickle a caper?

Soak half a cup of caper buds in a closed jar with water for 3 days, changing the water every 24 hours then drain them.

Mix half a cup of cider vinegar, half a cup of water and a tablespoon of salt. Boil this up and let it cool. Mix with the capers and store in a closed jar in the fridge for a week. 

Photos by Yasmin Maissel

Blooming in May: Wild Carrot - גזר קפח

May 2019 Iyar תשע"ט

What’s in bloom in Israel this month?

Gezer HaKipeach - גזר קפח  - Wild Carrot - Daucus Carota

The glorious spring flowers seem to be finishing, the wheat and barley and all the grains are turning yellow, spring is slipping into summer.  Yet gradually a dome appears almost hovering like a UFO above the foliage. From the distance it looks like umbrellas on a sandy beach, dullish white or cream umbrellas. This is the Wild Carrot or Daucus Carota and these domes can grow up to 30cm in diameter and up to 2 metres high!!

Fried Carrot Flower

Our better known carrot was cultivated from the Wild Carrot and it is all edible – the flower, the root and the leaves. As with most spring foraging, the younger leaves and stalks are always tastier before they flower and the flower is also tasty when young - at the pink stage.  Foragers fry up the flower like a shnitzel and it is a real delicacy.  I experimented with this and it was definitely tasty, although isn't everything fried tasty?  Of course this had the added benefits of lots of beta carotene and vitamin k! There are many similar flowers out there, most importantly if you are planning to eat this then you mustn't confuse it with Poison Hemlock.  Check out my quick guide how to tell the difference: 

When you get close up to this flower, you will be astounded by its intricacy. Each dome contains up to a hundred little domes and each of these are made up of dozens of tiny little flowers.  Before it goes into full bloom it actually starts off a delicate shade of pink but as the flowers open they emerge as off white.  Its lace like quality and intricate patchwork of tiny flowers earned it the name ‘Queen Anne’s Lace’ after the royal lace-maker Queen Anne of Great Britain in the 18^th Century.

From a distance you can see a black spot in the middle (supposedly where Queen Anne pricked herself and bled on the lace!)  Is it a bug? Is it a fly? No, this is the flowers way of ensuring its continuance.  We humans are naturally curious and if we see a crowd of people we will go and see what is going on.  I used to play a childhood game where a few of us would stand on the street looking up and pointing (at nothing at all) just to see how many other people would look up and try to see what we were seeing.   The wild carrot is doing the same to its own natural pollinators.  By placing a small clump of brown petals that look like a fly in the middle, it is tempting other flies and bugs to come and check it out.

Once it is pollinated it develops tiny fruits of 2-3 mm.  In spring we are used to seeing seeds flying around on parachutes or sticking to our clothes but the wild carrots holds onto its seeds tight until the winter.  The seeded flower gradually closes up into a tight ball and only opens up and releases its seeds during the rainy season.

 

The carrot will carry on flowering until August so get used to seeing it on the horizon!

 
 Crown Flower שפרירה קשקשנית

Poison Hemlock רוש עקוד

(Photo Courtesy of US Department of Agriculture)

Photos by Yasmin Maissel