Flowers in Israel – פרחים בארץ ישראל: September 2007

I will be as the dew to Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, he shall strike root as the poplar” Hosea 14: 5.

A member of the Amaryllidaceae family. There are about 15 species of the genus Pancratium. The botanical name of Pancratium means the ‘all-powerful,’ like Jesus as the Pankrator in Byzantine art (Greek pan, ‘all’, krotion, ‘power’ and ‘maritimum’ means ‘coastal’); Pantokrator was used to translate the Hebrew title El Shaddai.
Pancratium maritimum is a bulbous perennial, growing deeply buried in highly threatened Mediterranean habitats: the sand fields and dunes in the coastal area. The plant scapes to 40 cm height. The flowers are 3-15 in an umbel, have an exotic lily scent and are white. It is propagated by seed as well as bulbs. They are flowering in August to October with lots of sun. Leaves grow during winter and this species became rare because of destruction of the coast by urbanism.

The Pancratium species are toxic plants! The bulbs contain more than 20 alkaloids and some other substances (lectine…).There were ethnobotanical and/or medicinal uses with Pancatium: Pancratium maritimum has anti-fungal activity.

The flower has been identified in Minoan art, on a sacrificial knife and wall paintings and a golden ring, probably the emblem of a shamanic priestess, depicting women as ‘bee ladies’ experiencing a vision, and even a ceramic plate showing a Persephone snake goddess with her flower.

The Hebrew name for the flower is חבצלת החוף Chavazelet Hachof), and it is also generally accepted that the Rose of Sharon (Chavazelet Hasharon), mentioned in the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs 2:1-2), is identified with the Pancratium maritimum, but without justification.
Read more… The origin of the citron is unknown, but it was the first cultivated citrus fruit, with records dating back to 4000 BCE. It was a common fruit in the Mediterranean region at the time of the Bible and it is mentioned only once, as one of the four species used in a waving ritual during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. Leviticus 23:40 refers to the etrog as pri etz hadar (פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר), which literally means, “a fruit of the beautiful tree.” The other species are the lulav (date palm frond), hadass (myrtle bough), and aravah (willow branch).The etrog does not appear in the passage in Nehemiah 8:15 : ” Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” It is said that the exiles who returned from Babylon, of whom Nehemiah was one of the leaders, introduced the etrog into Israel for the first time.

According to the Halakha (the collective corpus of Jewish religious law), the etrog used in the mitzvah of the Four Species must be unblemished and of perfect form and shape. It should be shaped like a tower, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. It should also be straight and recessed inward at the bottom where the stem grows. The etrog should have a ‘pitam’ on the end opposite from the stem and free of spots and blemishes; it should be covered with bumps and depressions and should not be smaller than an average egg. H.B.Tristram (Natural History of the Bible; 1883) wrote: The citron is the most common species of the Orange tribe in Palestina, and was probably the first introduced. It is native of Media. The leaves are larger than those of the Orange, and the blossom pale purplish like the Lemon, instead of white like the Orange. The fruit, which is much larger than a lemon, and of an oblong shape is only used as a conserve.