Baruch Chizik and "The Plant Treasure"
Uri Rosenberg agron@netvision.net.il
Keywords: Pistacia vera, Encyclopedia, Lilium candidum
One cannot complete the gallery of founders in the hall of fame of the emerging botanical science pioneers in Eretz Yisrael, without mentioning Baruch Chizik. Chizik was an agronomist and botanist (without a formal degree), who operated in parallel with Alexander Eig and Michael Zohary, but was not part of the academic establishment. He acted as a private initiator, as a scholar with wide horizons, without any financing and outside assistance, but appears to have been forgotten from the collective consciousness. Chizik's greatest enterprise, which he didn't manage to complete during his lifetime, due to its vast dimentions, was "The Plant Treasure" (in Hebrew) – an encyclopedia of the plants of Eretz Yisrael arranged by alphabetical order that appeared in the form of pamphlets between the years 1938-48 and in book form in 1956 – one year after his death.
Summary of the Kalanit study tour in Mt. Carmel and the Western Galilee, November 15 & 16, 2017.
Avi Shmida – the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Behavior, and the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Givat Ram. avi.shmida@gmail.com
Hava Lahav, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. haval@netvision.net.il
Editing: Gadi Pollak – Kalanit editorial gadpollak@gmail.com
Keywords: Biarum pyrami, autumn blooming geophytes, autumn rain, distribution of geophytes, Ceratonia siliqua, Muscari parviflorum, Crocus hyemalis, Nacrissus tazetta, Narcissus serotinus, Cochicum stevenii, autumn bloomers, Mt. Carmel vegetation, Dianthus strictus
Two major rain events that occurred in October and the beginning of November in the areas of Nahariah and Haifa awakened early autumn and winter germination and blossoming in Mt. Carmel and the Western Galilee, even though not in the usual intensity experienced in previous years, in which much larger quantities of rain fell during this season. The main autumn bloomers that were observed and studied at the various stations in the study tour were the Late Flowering Narcissus (Narcissus serotinus), the First-rain Colchicum (Cochicum stevenii), the Galilee Biarum (Biarum pyrami), the Winter Crocus (Crocus hyemalis) and the Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqua). In addition, the summary presents a comprehensive review of the autumn bloomers in the Mediterranean region, with emphasis on the geophytes.
