About

Introduction

FLORAPALE the Flora Palaestina Ethnobotany web site, is the result of a collaboration between The Natural Medicine Research Center (NMRC) at Hadassah Medical Organization, Jerusalem, Israel and The Biodiversity and Environmental Research Centre (BERC), Nablus, Palestinian Authority.

FLORAPALE contains descriptions on the traditional uses of 321 species of vascular plants native to this region and was created by combining ethnobotanical data collected by different local researchers at different periods of time. Scientific plant names used to identify species in FLORAPALE are generally the accepted Latin name although some names are unresolved or there are conflicting opinions that could not be readily resolved by us. Plants are also identified by their vernacular/ common names in English, Hebrew & Arabic as well as some synonyms by which a species has been known in the past (Species Page).
A description of the content, creation and use of the FLORAPALE web site follows.

1. Flora Palaestina: History & Overview

For thousands of years the Holy Land, today comprising Israel, The Palestinian Authority (West Bank & Gaza) and Jordan has attracted explorers, students of natural history and biblical scholars.
  Amongst the earliest floristic descriptions of this region are those attributed to “The Father of Botany”, Theophrastos of Eresos (4^th century BCE), said to have received plants collected during the campaigns of Alexander the Great.
 Later works include those by; Nicolaus of Damascus (1^st century BCE) thought to have authored the botanical treatise “De plantis” (“On Plants”); Strabo (Geography XVI Chap 2); and Pliny the Elder (Natural History XIII Chap 9).

In later centuries (8^th-14^th century CE), Arabic scholars made an enormous contribution to the natural history of this region. Amongst the most famous were geographers; Al-Muqaddasi (ٱلْمُقَدَّسِي), (Jerusalem 945/946- 991CE); Ibn Hawqal, author of Ṣūrat al-‘Arḍ (صورة الارض) (“The Face of the Earth”); Yaqut al-Hamawi, (1179–1229), author of “KitabMu’jam ul-Buldān”(“Dictionary of Countries”); Mamaluk era Syrian geographer Abu l-Fida (1273-1331); and Al-Istakhri (977 CE).
Amongst the great physicians of this period Al-Tamimi (Jerusalem 10^th century CE) was renowned for “Al-Murshid” (“Guidebook to Basics in Food Nutrition and Properties of Non-Compounded Medicines”), based on his extensive knowledge of plant use in Syria and Palestine during the early Muslim period.
Avicenna (Ibn-Sina), (Afshana, present-day Uzbekistan ≈980 CE), amongst the most influential Moslem physicians was the author of Al-Qanun fi’t-Tibb, (“The Canon of Medicine”). This 5 volume textbook, a standard medical work in the Islamic world and Europe until the 18^th century, was also an important contributor to the “Unani” (Yunani)  traditional Persian-Arabic medical system.
Ibn al-Baytar ( ابن البيطار) (Andalusia, 1197–1248 CE), renowned pharmacist, botanist, physician and scientist was the author of Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Mufradāt al-Adwiya wa-l-Aghdhiya (Compendium on Simple Medicaments and Foods), a pharmacopoeia listing about 1400 plants, animal products and minerals used in medicine. His work was based on his collection of plants over a wide area including N. Africa, Anatolia, Syria, Arabia and Palestine and on his compilation and critical evaluation of older sources.

 Amongst medieval Jewish physicians Moses Maimonides (Cordoba 1138-1204 CE) is acknowledged as the greatest Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages. Personal physician to the Sultan in Cairo, Maimonides wrote prolifically on plants and medicine including treatises, monographs and a pharmacopeia that includes species found in this region.

 Christian pilgrimage literature also made an important contribution to our understanding of the natural history of this region. These include works by monastic travelers  Felix Fabri, (1441-1502), Abbot Daniel (12^th century) and the German priest and author Burchard of Mount Sion (13^th century) who recounted his travels in the Middle East in “Description of the Holy Land”.

 Later travel accounts describing natural history include those by Henry Timberlake an English ship-captain, who journeyed from Egypt to Jerusalem in 1601 and Henry Maundrell (1665-1701), clergyman and academic who described his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.

In the early modern period “Flora Orientalis” published by Gronovius (1755) describes the findings of Leonard Rauwolf, one of the first modern botanists who visited the region from 1573-1575.
The first published work on Flora Palaestina however was by Johan Strand and Carl Von Linne (Linnaeus) in 1756 in which ≈600 species native to the region were described based on sources including; botanical collections of Leonard Rauwolf and Swedish naturalist/ botanist Fredrik Hasselquist; lectures by Linnaeus; and  “Hierobotanicum”, a catalogue of Biblical plants compiled by Swedish  botanist/ clergyman Olof Celsius (The Elder), (1670-1756).
Fredrik Hasselquist (1722-1752), the pupil of Linnaeus is also responsible for “Iter Palaestinium” based on numerous plant samples collected from the region and published by Linnaeus after the former`s early death.

 In the 19^th  century many botanists and collectors visited the region including; French botanist “Aucher” (Pierre Martin Rémi Aucher-Éloy) (1792-1838); Austrian botanist Karl Kotschy (1813-1866); and German botanist/ physician Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757-1834). Together their work served as the basis for the conclusive “Flora Orientalis” published in 1867-68 by Swiss botanist/ explorer Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810-1885).
Later in the 19^th century valuable contributions to the flora of this region were made by Henry Baker Tristam in  “Flora and Fauna of Palestine” (1884) and George E. Post (1838-1909) in “Plantae Postianae (1890-1900) and “Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai”(1896).

 From the beginning of the 20th century botanical research was enriched by many individuals; Aaron Aaronsohn, botanist/ agronomist living in Palestine from 1905-15 established a herbarium near Haifa; Hillel Oppenheimer (1899-1971) and Michael Evanari (1904-1989) edited Aaronsohn`s works; Czech botanist František Nabalek (1884−1965) explored the Middle East, particularly southern Jordan (1909-10); John Edward Dinsmore (1862-1951) made important additions to Flora Palaestina and revised Post`s original work.

With the establishment in 1925 of the Dept. of Botany at the Institute of Agriculture and Natural History in Tel Aviv  and its transfer in 1929 to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem many more additions were made to Flora Palaestina.
New species were recorded by Hebrew University botanists Alexander Eig (1894-1938), Michael Zohary (1898-1983) and Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan (1900-1995), who together with botanist Otto Warburg (1859-1938), established the first National Botanical Garden of Israel in Jerusalem in 1931.
Published in the same year The Analytical Flora of Palestine became the first comprehensive systematic study of plants in the Land of Israel. Later the scope of the Botany department would be expanded by Tcharna Reiss, David Zaitschek (See Zaitschek collection) and Michael Even-Ari.
In 1966 Michael Zohary and Naomi Feinbrum-Dothan published Flora Palaestina, a comprehensive study of the plants of this region. Most recently updated in 2015 the latest edition contains many new taxa, changes to eco-geographical distribution and in several cases amended taxonomic status and nomenclature.

2. Flora Palaestina: Phytogeography & current status

Today Flora Palaestina consists of some 2750 species and 114 families.
This rich diversity in such a relatively small area is attributed partly to the region`s unique position at the meeting of 3 plant geographical regions: Mediterranaen, Irano-Turanina and Saharo-Sindian. These conditions have given rise to a highly diverse topography, climate and soil that includes; mediterranean coast with its typical sand dune vegetation; broad expanses of alluvial soils with rich weed flora and abundant multi-regional types including Judean mountains containing mediterranean forest & maquis vegetation; Judean desert with Irano-Turanian vegetation; desert landscape containing tropical savannah, salines and rock-floored “hammadas”.

In paleo-plant geography the regional flora has undergone many changes since the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene periods (66-23 million years BP) with successive invasions and retreats of flora leaving behind their relics.
Agriculture thought to have developed in this region during the Neolithic period (approx.10,000 BCE) has also contributed over its long history to the rich diversity of local species including wild crop relatives and progenitors of some of the world`s most important domesticated crops e.g. barley, wheat, oats, garlic, peas, lentils and chick peas.

Today however many Flora Palaestina species are seriously threatened by environmental degradation, climate change, urban expansion and an accelerating loss of wild habitat. Currently some 373 local plants (16.3%) are on the “Red List” of endangered species of which 273 species are mediterranean, significantly over-represented when compared to the whole flora of this region.
In addition 30% are classified as rare and at least 34 species have become locally extinct in the last 50 years with an average Red Number of 8.6, significantly higher than the average of the current Red List. Only 15 species however have been limited to one site before extinction, indicating that rarity is not the only factor in the extinction of local flora.

3. Flora Palaestina: Ethnobotany

For thousands of years the plants of this region have played a vital role in its economy, culture and traditions. Their many uses have included food, agriculture, medicines (human and veterinary), cosmetics, spices, perfumes, dyes, raw materials for building, clothing, basket and rope making and for ritual, ceremonial and religious observance. Medicinal plants are particularly prevalent with many descriptions of their use described particularly in the writings of medieval Arab and Jewish physicians (See History & Overview). Information on plant use has also been passed down verbally from generation to generation, both within local communities as well as by Jewish immigrants to Israel from Middle Eastern countries which share many of the same species as this region.
This information provides an important insight into the multi-cultural and historical uses of many local species through successive generations.
Today however the continuation of this tradition is seriously threatened. Local healers in both Arab and Jewish communities who once played an important role in communal life have been largely replaced by modern medical clinics, while local natural resources on which village economies were once dependent, have now been largely replaced by imported/ commercial products. Thus a rich legacy of plant use and a valuable historical tradition acquired by Jews and Arabs over thousands of years is rapidly being lost.

4.Preserving the Knowledge