The Botanical Gardens' Discovery Trail

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS’ DISCOVERY TRAIL

Come discover, touch and feel nature in a unique adventure for the whole family

Explore year round with a Botanical Gardens annual membership! The Hebrew versions of articles in English often carry different photographs, Contents which are worth checking out!

2 Discovery Trail 14 An Outing to the Savannah, 3 Contents or: A Visit which Ended Badly 4 Gardens News 16 Summer fun 6 Pontederia in the Vegetable Garden 8 The Story Behind Our Grains 18 Friends and Volunteers 10 Anthemis amblyolepis 19 Profile 11 Kalanit 20 Family Page New Online Journal for Israeli Flora Harvest Festivities 12 Succulents in our Village – Kfar Azar fun plants for the summer 22 Events

Editors: Ruth Perlman and Sara Adar Scientific editing: Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir Editorial Board: Sara Adar, Channa Cohen, Nehama Foerster, Ruth Perlman, Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir Odelia Aroshas Photography: Ori Fragman-Sapir,Oz Golan, Judith Marcus Graphic Design: Ran Levi+ Translation: Ofer Grunwald, Professional Translation Services Printed by: Shimshon Printers Address: 1 Zalman Shneor Street, Nayot, Jerusalem (via Nayot Petrol Station) Mailing address: The Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, Hebrew University Givat Ram Campus, Jerusalem 9021401 Telephone: 02 6794012 | Fax: 02 6793941 www.en.botanic.co.il Summer Opening hours: Sundays through Thursdays 9.00-19.00 Fridays and holiday eves 9.00-17.00 Sabbaths and holidays 9.00-18.00 Hours may be extended for special events - please check our website. Cover photo: Pontederia cordata, by Ori Fragman-Sapir

3 News from the Hub... News from the Hub...

Sustainable kindergarten Gardens Community and school gardens and Holocaust survivors As part of a new project for sustainable gardens in The Gardens Community, a Hub project for people of kindergartens, we’ve built 30 gardens around the city (10 55, meets once a week for horticultural training and in Orthodox kindergartens, 10 in Arab kindergartens, 10 for volunteering around the city. Among other things, in State and State-Religious kindergartens). We provided they volunteer with the Dolls and Dreams group, of the teachers with training, and built the gardens together 25 Holocaust survivors, who meet once a month for with the children’s families and volunteers, and provide horticultural and environmental activities. The project is support throughout the year on both horticulture and significant and emotional for all involved. To quote one curriculum. The project enabled the gardens, the of the participants: “The plants give us hope in our lives children and the broader community to grow. The project and return our love… They remind us that something is run together with the Jerusalem Municipal Education new is born.” Authority, the JBG Agricultural Farm, the David Yellin Kayma Farm’s hydroponic greenhouse College Center for Sustainability, and the Ministry for The Kayma Farm from Beit Zait have built their Environmental Protection. We also built sustainable hydroponic greenhouse in the JBG. The greenhouse gardens in various kindergartens and schools, and are provides work for Kayma’s young farmers, who have slowly transforming the city’s schools into green spaces dropped out of other educational programs, and grow to ensure that Jerusalem’s children will be able to enjoy vegetables in nothing but water. The greenhouse, the nature even within the confines of the city! first of its kind in an urban setting, covers 1,000 square The Hub’s training greenhouse meters and is a significant step forward in urban farming! The Hub’s training greenhouse is working non-stop, Community engagement hosting various Hub and third-party groups such as the in planning the Hub compound Green Parliament, comprising 30 top students from East We held an event to engage our community in planning Jerusalem. Work includes growing plants for the edible the designated Hub compound. We invited members urban forests group, for the Engineers Without Borders’ from Jerusalem’s sustainable community to partner with rooftop garden project in the Hebrew University’s Givat us right from the start in brainstorming the plans for Ram campus, and more. this compound. We hope they will continue working with the Hub in its construction and development, and will use its facilities when they are ready. The meeting included a public-comment process together with Austerlitz Architecture, who are designing the facility, and yielded a wealth of knowledge and insights. Saving the geophytes Works are underway to expand Jerusalem’s light rail system, and this work is expected to destroy an urban nature preserve near Kiryat Menachem. The site is Members of the Green Parliament in training at the the native habitat for rare and endemic geophytes. In Hub's greenhouse

4 Lior Gottesman News from the Hub... News from the Hub... Director, JBG Hub

January, we called on our community to come to the David Mendelbaum, the Hub’s new nature preserve to save the area’s geophytes. Dozens of content developer members from Jerusalem’s eco-community answered We have grown and added a new team member, David our call, including young families, teens, and senior Mendelbaum, as our content developer. David will citizens, who saved hundreds of orchids, buttercups, work to develop content for two key areas – urban and cyclamens. These were re-planted in Jerusalem’s food growing, and ecological functions of open urban two Botanical Gardens – in Givat Ram and Mount spaces. David is an agronomist who graduated from the Scopus – and in other sites around the city. Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, and also works with Returning Salvia bracteata and Salvia Community Ltd. and develops eco-community projects multicaulis to Nature with Green Team in East Jerusalem. Until lately, David coordinated the youths Beit Hakerem Sustainable Neighborhood project, Salvia bracteata, a rare species which used to grow wild and also worked at the JBG for several years with the in Jerusalem, went extinct in the wild 22 years ago during Courses and Education departments. construction of the Begin Highway – its last known Green volunteer patrol. habitat in Israel. Before it went extinct, the JBG collected In March, we held a round-table discussion with the the last few specimens of this salvia for propagation. We Jerusalem Municipality’s Volunteering Council and recently ran a project to return Salvia bracteata and the Jerusalem Community Gardens, on establishing a Green similarly rare Salvia multicaulis to Nature. The project Volunteer Patrol for Jerusalem. The meeting was attended was led by Green Team youths in the Gazelle Valley, by 20 representatives from various volunteer organizations, Ein Yael, and in community gardens across the city. The and we brainstormed ways to train volunteers at the Hub, inspiring story was covered extensively by national and which would serve as a central resource and coordinator local media, appearing in newspapers, on radio and for all the city’s green organizations looking for volunteers. national television. International Volunteering Conference As part of the International Volunteering Conference (the first of its kind in Israel), led by the International Volunteerism Association (IVA) in partnership with the JBG HUB (as the Israeli Partner) and three additional volunteering organizations from Germany, Italy, and France, our community coordinator, Ma’ayan Shiri, presented the various volunteering opportunities in the Hub and the JBG. The conference sought to promote collaboration between civil organizations in Israel and in Europe, and raise the number of people participating in volunteer programs. The conference was attended by representatives from the various embassies, Planting rare Salvia by 'Green Team' youths in the various municipal authorities in Israel, and numerous Gazelle Valley volunteering organizations.

5 Pontederia – the Water Pickerel Dr. Michael Avishai

Visitors to the Gardens’ ponds are familiar by now with the special life style of water plants: they wake-up late, when most of the Gardens’ plants finished their spring or early summer flower show and continue late into autumn, when chilly lengthening nights signal to them the end of their growth season. The dense clumps of Pontederia leaves, topped by tall dense blue flowering spikes, are no exemption to this rule. As members of a small plant family (Pontederiaceae) of tropical affinity, this is only natural. Their name commemorates Guigi Pontederia, a 17th century Italian Botanist.

Interestingly, in nature they occur in marshy fertile soils or riverbanks from Brazil all the way to southeastern Canada and in cultivation they are invasive pest, forbidden in many countries, such as Australia. In Israel it is cultivated and is not invasive. Watching them bloom, one asks himself what gives such beautiful flowering plants this notorious reputation. It is an interesting assemblage of features: they are perennials growing from a submerged thick rhizome, Pontederia cordata 6 able to survive periods of drought. The rhizome division and never set seed – their flower is singularly adapted to pollination by wild relatives yield masses of seed. Contrary a single species of bee, to which a reward of to other tropical plants distinguished by nectar is offered. The flower is distinguished short lived fruits, Pontederia fruits are long- by styles of three lengths in individual living, dispersed far afield by aquatic fowls. different plants. It had already caught the Once shed from their mother plant, they eye of Charles Darwin, who discovered its need the winter to ripe their nut-like seeds function as a perfect setup to avoid self- and germinate next spring. Together with pollination. Only a plant with a different type other features this is the key to understand of style length can fertilize each plant. While the wide distribution of this genus and its cultivated plants are usually propagated by ability to invade other biomes.

Pontederia cordata 7 Shavuot Special

The Story Behind Our Grains Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir

The Fertile Crescent, including Israel, our diet became more limited compared is a special region, where societies to the diverse diet of our hunter-gatherer developed and made use of Nature’s ancestors, who roamed larger areas. resources. The region is considered Agriculture also made mankind more the birthplace of agriculture, where and more dependent on local climate wild wheat was cultivated and became conditions, and periods of exceptional humanity’s most important food crop. droughts or cold even led to hunger and (Did you know that 70% of our diet in famine. Israel is comprised of wheat products?!) In Israel, we can find a large number of the progenitors to today’s food crops. Many Important food crops cultivated in our are easily identified by their shape and region can be divided into two groups genetics. Usually, the wild ancestor and the – grains, and legumes. These provide cultivar can be cross-bred to create fertile a balanced diet, with grains offering offspring. carbohydrates (sugars) and legumes Prehistoric findings show that people offering protein. The main cultivated grains harvested wheat and barley in the region are wheat and barley, and for the legumes even before they were cultivated. In the – peas and lentils. In other regions of the wild, the spikes of these plants break and world, a similar, facinating picture emerges fall apart, and so the seeds can only be – the Far East cultivated rice (grain) and collected during a very short period. A soy bean (legume), and in South America – single mutation which caused the wheat corn (grain) and beans (legume)! grains to stay on the stem allowed our Cultivation of wild plants, which began ancestors to gather the seeds over a longer over 9,000 years ago, allowed mankind period, leading to cultivation. Wild wheat to abandon a nomadic lifestyle, supplying was first discovered in Israel about a plentiful harvests from relatively small century ago by Aharon Aharonson, one of spaces. However, later studies reveal that the pioneers of botany in Israel. The plant 8 grows wild from the Judean mountains cultivatred in our region, such as oats, and to the Hermon. The cultivation of wild rye which was cultivated from an annual wheat led to the emergence of hard wheat rye species found in Turkey. In Israel, a close (durum). Durum flower does not rise easily relative can be found – the mountain rye – a and so is more suitable for pita bread and perennial found on the Golan Heights and the pasta. Later, bread wheat emerged in the Hermon, characterized by short-haired glumes. Caucasus region, through as a spontaneous hybridization of hard wheat and another The ancestors of today’s crops are of weed – wild goat grass. special conservational importance. The The dispersal units in wheat ears are arrow- wild populations of these plants are shaped spikelets – their base is helmet- genetically diverse, as compared to the shaped and they lack hairs, except for a genetically uniform domestic cultivars. long, stiff bristles (awns). Wild barley is more These plants can be used to obtain commonly found in Israel, and can even be various desirable traits, such as resistance found in the desert. It is characterized by to disease, drought and salinity, as well 3-spikelet dispersal units, and in contrast to as traits which increase fertility and crop wheat, has also shorter hairs. Today, barley yields. These plants are conserved in is grown in Israel mainly as animal feed. nature reserves, the Israel Gene Bank (as In these two grains (wheat and barley), seeds), and in the Botanical Gardens. the spike’s shattering process (a natural In our Gardens, we grow many of them, adaptation for dispersing seeds) was conserving them for future generations. selected through cultivation. In cultivars, These plants are displayed for the the spike don’t shatter, but `wait` to be Gardens‘ thousands of visitors to see harvested. and learn about, raising awareness of the Remember that our other grains were also importance of this matter.

Hordeum spontaneum, wild barley 9 Anthemis amblyolepis An extremely rare plant re-discovered in Rosh Hanikra, and now growing in our Gardens Oz Golan and Ori Fragman-Sapir

In the spring of 2013, we found an identifying features remained constant. unidentified Anthemis plant on the beach near It is interesting to note that in 1978, Naomi Rosh Hanikra. The plants were completely Feinbrun revoked Anthemis amblyolepis’s different from those seen in other Anthemis status as a separate species, and included species in Israel. Over several months we it as a sub-species of Anthemis palestina. In tried feverishly to identify the plant, studied her article, she did not explain the reasons the flora of neighboring countries, searched for the change, but only mentioned it in a the internet – and could not find an answer. single line. A thorough search of the Hebrew University In light of species re-discovery in Israel in Herbarium led us to conclude that the plant 2013, and following our comparative study, must be Anthemis amblyolepis, collected there seem to be numerous and substantial in the 1930s in Syria and Lebanon, and differences between this plant and Anthemis described by Alexander Eig (the founder of palestina. In light of these findings, we botany in Israel). In the herbarium, we found a published an article in Kalanit, Israel Plant single sheet with this plant, collected in Israel Magazine, where we suggest reinstating in April 1957 by Yaacov Lorch on the slopes Anthemis amblyolepis as separate species of Rosh Hanikra, and mistakenly identified and including it among Israel’s red-book of as Anthemis melanolepis. Today, this is the endangered plants. only known site where it grows in Israel. The Anthemis amblyolepis is a branched and population in Rosh Hanikra was mapped and ramified annual, reaching 5-30 cm in height, seeds were taken to the Gardens, where they with stiff and somewhat fleshy leaves. The were sown in the autumn of 2014 and easily flowering head is extremely thick, almost germinated without any special treatment. cup-like; the inner sides of the involucre are For two years, the plant’s lifecycle was not pointed like those of Anthemis palestina. closely documented. The plant set fruit and When the seeds mature, the inflorescence created numerous viable seeds. The plant’s looks like a clenched fist. 10 Kalanit New Online Journal for Israeli Flora Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir

Over twenty years ago, there was a journal intended for botanists and plant ecologists, known as Rotem, which focused on Israel’s nature lovers and conservationists, students, natural flora and offered a wealth of articles and teachers. New articles are published and fascinating topic-specific magazines continuously, and are then collated into in Hebrew. Years after Rotem ceased ‘editions’. publication, Prof. Avi Shmida and Dr. Gadi Since the journal first launched in September Pollak managed to recruit other botanists 2014, it has published 75 articles, 11 field- and ecologists, and found a new journal – study summaries, 60 plants featured in the Kalanit (www.kalanit.co.il). ‘Now Flowering’ section; and 16 Plants of Kalanit is an online Hebrew-language the Month. journal focusing on Israel’s flora and Kalanit’s Chief Editors: vegetation. It features articles and listings Prof. Gidi Ne’eman, Prof. Avi Shmida, Dr. in a broad range of subjects: systematics; Gadi Pollak, Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir local and global geographic distribution; Expanded Editorial Staff: Dr. Erga Aloni, biology and ecology; various uses for wild Prof. Amotz Dafni, plants; conservation and biodiversity. Dr. Jean-Marc Dufour-Dror, Shir Vered, Kalanit also features articles recounting Dr. Avner Cohen, Prof. Mordechai Kislev, Israel’s flora as mentioned in Hebrew Prof. Gidi Ne’eman, Dr. Gadi Pollak, scripture and the folklore of various ethnic Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir, Dr. Ron Frumkin, groups. The journal publishes original Mimi Ron, Prof. Avi Shmida, materials including new research and Dr. Tzvia Shapira. opinions, published in Hebrew for the first Hebrew editor: Hagar Leschner; time. Articles are written and reviewed English translation: Dr. Susan Hattis Rolef; by botanical professionals. The journal is Webmaster: Dr. Gadi Pollak

11 Succulents – fun plants for the summer Noah Nathaniel Marthinsen, the Garden’s nursery

Succulents are wonderful plants, as their will encourage rapid rooting, so don’t be fleshy leaves, stems or roots are perfectly surprised if you have a whole new plant in adapted for hot, dry summers. They are a matter of months. a propagator’s dream as they will easily Leaf Cuttings: Many rosette-forming survive, regenerate and thrive anew with succulents, such as Echeveria or Aeonium just a few simple tricks. can also be grown from just a leaf! Simply Rooting stem cuttings: it is important to spread leaves on a growing medium and dry the open wound, after a couple of days wait. It’s a long process, but a tiny plantlets just plant the stem in any soil or potting will form at the leaf base, and after a while, medium! The water and sugar in the leaves they will be ready to be potted up!

Aeonium canariensis 12 Cacti: Cacti are among the most well-known and charismatic succulents. There are two other things to remember: remember to plant the cutting the same way up that it was growing, Secondly, cacti get used to the direction from which the sunlight hits them. When moving cacti, or taking cuttings, mark its north side and ensure that it faces the same direction after repotting or moving it. Once propagated, your succulents will need a growing medium with plenty of air and drainage, especially during rooting, so use one with plenty of large particles. In the nursery we use lava scoria and it works great! Succulents need sunlight, but full direct summer sunlight is often too much, so try to find them a partially-shaded, mostly sunny place. Cacti, the ultimate desert plant, will do just fine in full sun. Succulents can be extremely fun and rewarding to propagate. They can be collected from almost any interesting specimen you come across (with the owner’s permission) and can give your garden interesting colors, shapes and textures that will last all summer long, and for years after. Come to the Garden’s nursery, there is an impressive succulent collection indoors and we might even give you a piece of a plant… Echinocactus grusonii 13 An Outing to the Savannah, or: A Visit which Ended Badly Rachel Oron Ok, I’ve had enough of only interviewing Great to hear it. But before we talk, I have to ask trees which have a hard time acclimatizing – why the giant spikes? I don’t think anyone is in our Gardens; which are full of complains threatening you. And you’re not some tiny grass and criticism about the Gardens, the climate, that anyone could tread on. Do you even have that they were brought here, and so on and any enemies? Your section seems very calm and so forth. It puts me in a bad mood, and it’s peaceful. And one more question – I see that not like this city’s in short supply of troubles your branches are covered with fruit pods, as anyway. though you were a pea plant. What’s that about? I decided that this time, I’ll look for a plant Wow, talk about aggressive questioning. that likes the Gardens. Who doesn’t find our Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything so you can summers far too hot, like the Spruce or the understand. Allow me to introduce myself, my winters too cold, like the Aloe; who likes the family, my lineage, and the meaning of both neighborhood and the neighbors, and doesn’t my Hebrew and English names. feel out of place. Maybe it even has relatives (Me, embarrassed): I didn’t know you were here in Israel. Maybe even a tree with an so well educated, here in the middle of the ancient Hebrew name… Savannah. Well, let’s hear it then! I went to the Gardens, passed by the visitor I come from a very, very, very large family. center which is being renovated, went past So large, that some nature scholars have the Japanese stone, and found myself in the decided to split us into three different families. South Africa Section. A few more steps, and Anywhere in the world where you can find lo! – I found myself in front of a large tree with plants growing, you’ll find some member of my thorn-covered branches, with a sign before it family. We’re known as the Family Fabaceae, or saying ‘Acacia karoo’. the Legumes. Hurray! I found it! The Acacia tree! How can I recognize someone from your family? Hello, Mrs. Acacia, I was looking for you. I Just like you said, by our seed pods! You’re came to talk to you a bit. How are you? right, just like beans and peas, even chickpeas Hello to you too. I like it here. I like it a lot! – we all have pods. 14 So even the carob tree is part of your family? Gardens, and are already showing their thorns! You’ll have to check that out for yourself… The staff here have a hard time pulling them Wait a bit, until summer starts, in June. I’ll out. We’ve laughed at how they hurt and prick start flowering, and then you should come and their hands trying to clear us out. There’s a lot see me. And bring everyone with you! I’m all of space for us here and … ablaze with balls of yellow flowers, like soft Suddenly, you’re sounding more and more like cotton balls, and the bees go absolutely crazy a violent and invasive tree, and not like a well- over me! mannered guest. Remember that we brought I’ll come see, I promise! you here from South Africa and planted you here My family is known as the Mimosoideae and in the Gardens. You have to mind your manners. include us Acacias. You can find Acacia trees I don’t have to do anything. You brought me all through the tropics, in America, in Africa, here, so it’s your problem. Now my offspring and in Australia. Even here in the desert, you and I will rule here and I don’t care what you can find the umbrella thorn Acacia. think. I’ve won! You’re all over the world! I don’t want to argue with you, Acacia. We had a Not on that. We’re mentioned in the Torah in nice and interesting chat and if you’ll excuse me, the book of Exodus. It says that Bezalel built I’ll take my leave. the tabernacle and the arc of the covenant to I felt that I was angry and upset, I left her and hold the tablets of the Ten Commandments went on my way, glad that I did not have to stay given to Moshe on Mount Sinai from Acacia in her company. What happened? How did our tree (Shitah trees) (Exodus, 25). That’s us! pleasant conversation turn into an argument? Oh, right. And you asked about my giant How does a well-mannered guest suddenly thorns. Well, we Acacias grow in some places become a violent intruder?... that aren’t so peaceful, with large and powerful In closing, the honest truth: The gardeners who animals like elephants and giraffes, who care for the Gardens’ South Africa Section are love to chew on our leaves. We have to take nearing a decision that they cannot control the precautions. And let me tell you that everything spread of Acacia karoo seedlings in the Section, here is calm and peaceful, and (with a devious and they have no choice but to pull it out and smile) I can move from defense to offence. I’m make do without an Acacia karoo – because well on my way to spreading my seed pods to it’s hard to control, and before it invades other all the different sections. Look around at all sections of the Gardens. my thorny seedlings which are growing in the For more information – see the Head Gardener 15 Summer fun in the Vegetable Garden Amanda Lind

According to the Lunar calendar the 6 pizza triangles with small paths to the festival of Shavuot – the “feast of weeks” center. takes place mid-June. It is a harvest festival, Plant the different beds with the ingredients. celebrating the land of “milk and honey”. All that then remains is to make good pizza The menu for this festival is dairy products dough and add cheese and you have home and harvest grains. grown pizza for the holiday. The next stage is to build an oven in the This time, I have taken the products garden! Good luck. that we eat and created an educational “pizza garden”. This is a wonderful inter- generational project that can be grown in window boxes or in the garden if you have the space.

The summer vegetables and herbs we need to make pizza are: • Tomatoes (if possible “Roma” which have the most flavor), • Bell Peppers and hot spicy peppers for those who like them, • Sweet corn (for gardens), • Basil, Parsley and Spring onions . If there is space in the garden, then creating a round pizza bed is done by fixing a

piece of string in the center of the bed and “Heritage tomatoes” A wonderful example of marking the circumference. Then mark biodiversity. Photo; Amanda Lind 16 Come Grow With Us Register now for the Botanical Gardens summer courses!

Info and registration: Odelia Aroshas 052-4472409 | [email protected]

ההאב הסביבתי-חברתי של הגן הבוטני studio: keren shpira-bozglo The Environmental Social Hub and the ITEK Forum Invite You:

Community Garden Gardening course from 0 to 100 For neighborhood activists

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Want to learn how to develop public spaces for various goals? Food growing | Community garden | Butterfly gardens Cultivated wilderness | Composting | Creating active communities

8 weekly sessions, 3 hours each Course opens in Spring 2016

For more information and registration: Maayan Shiri | Community Coordinator for the JBG Environmental-Social Hub 052-8555742 | [email protected]

17 Friends and Volunteers

Dear Friends and Visitors – New opportunities Greetings! for Volonteering in the Gardens: The fitful weather this year has thrown Nature’s natural Library – Magazine catalog manager. Working with order into a bit of a spin: in the wild, flowers felt that Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir. Minimum requirements: basic spring arrived in February and sent their blossoms English reading ability, physically able to move the rolling shelves and move magazines from place to out early; and the same happened in our Gardens place. Basic knowledge of working with computers. – many of the plants bloomed early. And yet, many were left for a blaze of spring blossoms, delighting the Library – Librarian. Working with Dr. Ori Fragman- Gardens’ visitors. And we’re sure you were especially Sapir and Shila. Book organization and arrangement, with regular weekly work hours during which people delighted if your children and/or grandchildren found can be invited to visit the library and browse the books. the new Discovery Trail with all its hidden secrets and challenges! Translation – Translating articles and other material from Hebrew to English, and occasionally No doubt you have also seen the construction taking from English to Hebrew. Working with Dr. Ori place on the Tropical Conservatory and the Visitor Fragman-Sapir. Possible to work from home. Center. We can’t wait to see them in all their glory! Requirements: prior translation experience in these “A Garden View” is interesting and brings you language pairs. botanical news – Happy Reading! And each and every Education – Organizing the plant file for the Hebrew one of you is always welcome to visit the Gardens. gardening course. Working with Odelia Aroshes and Happy Summer! Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir. Requirements – prior experience With joy – in organizing computerized data, writing experience. Ruthy, Chana, Nehama, Sarah, Ori and Odelia Some of the work may be done from home. Database - Gathering information on the Gardens’ UK Friends of the Gardens plants for the database. Working with Dr. Ori Fragman- Sapir. Requirements – able to use a computer, Hebrew Barbara Sherling writing experience (English writing experience an The gardening volunteers on the 26th Working advantage). Holiday to the JBG, organized by the UK Friends, have just finished their visit. As well as helping the gardeners plant near the new Children’s Discover Trail and working in the nursery, the volunteers joined the Israeli Friends’ to see wild Irises, enjoyed home hospitality and explored as much of Jerusalem as possible. To take part in next year’s trip, contact Barbara Sherling at [email protected], like our Facebook page Friends of Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Friends of the 'JBG' trip to Mt. Meron or look at our website: http://www.friendsjbg.org.uk/ Photo: Riki Vinegarten 18 Profile: Asher Ofir Chana Cohen

“The very next day after I retired from my Even now, Asher still sits on the Finance job with the Income Tax Service in 2001, I Committee, is still the Friends Organization’s was at the Gardens volunteering.” contact person with the bank, works How did that happen? I asked Asher. together with Nehama Weissman to draft And he answered: budgets and financial statements – and “I was born in Romania and came to Israel to top it all off, for almost 20 years he with the Youth Aliyah. I arrived in Kibbutz has been managing the Coffee Club – a Beit Zera in January of 1949. In the kibbutz, monthly social event where Friends of the I was adopted by one of the families Gardens come to hear lectures on diverse and raised along with the other kibbutz topics from botany to geology and more. children. In the Nahal, I built, together In fact, Asher has been with the Gardens with Sara Adar and Zmira (my future wife) before they were even conceived, when the the ornamental garden in Kibbutz Nir Oz.” land was still used as a landfill! For him, the transformation of a landfill into a flourishing Gardening was always a part of Asher’s life. garden, and moreover: a Botanical Garden, When he moved to Jerusalem, although is nothing short of miraculous! he worked in the Income Tax Service, his And what does Asher wish the Gardens? free time was spent maintaining private That more people will come; that there gardens: watering, sowing, and planting. will not be any areas that are neglected Asher also had a plot in Sataf, which he and that skilled hands will never be tilled and nurtured lovingly for 14 years, in short supply. It pains me to see the and which gave him free rein to express conservatory unfinished – it could have his love and experience in gardening. He been a magnet drawing many scores of had to stop his working at Sataf because is visitors to the Gardens! volunteering in the Gardens’ expanded to And finally: Asher and his wife Zmira 3 days a week, and he had no more time to have 3 children and 8 grandchildren!! the plot there. Way to go, Asher! 19 Family Page

Harvest Festivities in our village - Kfar Azar Nehama Foerster In memory of my brother, the archaeologist Prof. Yoram Tsafrir Shavuot is known as the festival of first fruit, and Kayemeth LeYisrael (KKL-JNF). This tradition is one of the three High Holidays: Passover, began in the Kibbutzim in Emek Yizrael back the spring festival; Shavuot, the festival of the in the 1920s, and the teacher’s council next harvest and first fruit; and Sukkot, which is to KKL, established in 1927, decided to call the festival of the gathering of crops. All are this ceremony “Memory of the Festival of ancient holidays, handed down to the people First Fruit”, aiming to maintain its national- of Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 23,15:17), agricultural character from biblical times. and are related to agricultural seasons and In our village, Kfar Azar, which was founded pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, as in 1932, we would also hold the festival of commanded in the book of Deuteronomy offering the first fruit. Each family in the (26, 1:11). These holidays were observed so moshav had a field of just under 2 acres, long as the people of Israel resided in their from which we had to make our living. We land and worked their fields. In the diaspora, did not grow wheat, but still we tried to the focus in Shavuot shifted to the handing grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables and down of the Torah, Mount Sinai, and longing even flowers. Later, chickens and cattle were to return to the Holy Land. added. “Immigrant workers” were nowhere Only after the return to Israel, could to be seen, because one of our goals was to the agricultural settlements once more “reclaim Hebrew labor”, and so we children celebrate the agricultural holidays, as their helped where we could: we planted potatoes, natural focus was on reclaiming the land, gathered strawberries, picked tomatoes and resettlement and agriculture. Since the cucumbers, zucchini and eggplants, and even Temple was no longer there, the holidays helped growing feed for the livestock, picking were celebrated in a secular atmosphere, citrus fruits and corn… and in the coup we and instead of making the pilgrimage to gathered the eggs and helped our tired parents Jerusalem to offer first fruit at the Temple – clean them every evening with moist towels – fruits were brought as donations to Keren no one would dare send Tnuva dirty eggs! 20 When Shavuot came around, our woven baskets, which were also of our own community would celebrate as well. It making. We would weave the baskets from wasn’t a religious festival, as the community metal wire or whatever we could find, and comprised idealistic Zionist pioneers, fill them with all the bounty of our land: men and women of the Second Aliyah, fruits and vegetables, eggs and cream, and who came mainly from Russia and upon sometimes even a tiny chickling which reaching Israel substituted religion with the would also be adorned with flowers… “devout labor” preached by A.D. Gordon, Our parents would harness the mules to one of the prominent figures of the Labor wagons, in which all the children would Zionism movement. sit, bearing fruits of plenty and adorned On Shavuot Eve, the moshav would build a with all the beauty of the land. But how stage (on the steps of the kindergarten), and then would our offering reach KKL? Luckily, covered the wall with white sheets. On the the solution presented itself – next to our stage, one of the older teens would stand village, a wealthy Jewish man by the name and serve as ‘high priest’ for the ceremony. of Litvinski built his home. He built a small He received the first fruits, brought before neighborhood, which he called Tel Litvinski, him in procession. The other children, better known today as ‘Tel Hashomer’ for myself included, would adorn heads with its proximity to the Tel Hashomer – Shiba crowns woven from wild and garden hospital. The residents were wealthy olim, flowers. On our shoulders we would carry mostly doctors and persons of liberal professions, and generally people of means. Our procession would drive over to sell our fruits. The meager payment we received, and which was truly earned by our sweat and toil, was collected and presented with joyous, white-clad celebration to the ‘high priest’ on the stage. Class after class we would come! The older girls would also wear white sheets and dance and sing, and in my memory one song in particular echoes through the years – “Hallelujah,

All Tours depart from the visitor center. Walking Tours are guided by Friends of the Gardens and are offered to visitors at no extra cost and without prior registration. For guided Tour inquiries, call: Ilana – 02-6480049, Gardens entrance – 02-6794012. Professional Tours are guided by the Gardens’ science staff. Coffee Club – will not meet in the coming months due to renovations to the visitor center.

Every Monday, Yehiel Baras will provide phone consultation on horticultural questions from 9:00 to 10:00 am. To consult Yehiel, call – 073-37217101