Biblical flowers: Spiny Zilla

_{Location: Makhtesh Ramon (Ramon Crater), Ha-Minsara (The Carpentry Shop)}

Zilla, from “silla”, an arabic word denoting a spine, named by Peter Forsskål ((1732-1763), author abbreviation Forssk.); silon is ‘thorn’.

spinosus, spinos, “thorny”, refers to its spiny nature.
The Hebrew name: סילון, silon, from Arabic silla; סילון, silon “thorn, briers.”

• The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy.
• The standard author abbreviation Prantl is used to indicate Karl Anton Eugen Prantl (1849 – 1893), a German botanist.

Zilla, or Silla is the Arabic name for a very spiny and very noticeable plant. Zilla spinosa is growing in the Sharo-Arabian extreme deserts. Zillah (Tsillâh, צלה, shade), and her sister, Adah became the wives of their third cousin, Lamech. Zillah was named for this plant. Zilla spinosa are usually in parts of wadi beds that are covered with alluvial deposits. It is a short leaved herbaceous naked, bluish-waxy perennial or an annual with a roundish canopy. Their flowers are light violet. Fruits are chickpea-like. When the plant is mature it is pulled out of its bed and goes bouncing through the desert. Zilla spinosa is a commonly used plant in Bedouin Households of St Katherine’s Protectorate; 60% of the dry boiled plants are used for Urinary tract diseases and 6% is collected for fuel. Bible resources:

1. Genesis 4:23
   Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.
2. Ezekiel 28:24
   No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers (silon=thorn) and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.

_{Location: Makhtesh Ramon (Ramon Crater), Ha-Minsara (The Carpentry Shop)}