This is the second part of the blog from Jack C, a final-year Kew Diploma student who won the 2015 Worm Travel Bursary. Due to an error, his blog was not published at the time. The final part will appear soon.
On our gradual decent we stopped at a few places where the rise in temperature enabled a more lush vegetation to persist. Magenta pink carpets of Silene damascena ebbed and flowed along the hillsides.
Silene damascene (c) J Clutterbuck
Scilla hyacinthoides were on parade, their blue torch-like forms jumping out of the cliff face. The giant Lamiaceae inflorescences of Eremostachys laciniata stood tall, showing off their white woollen flowers that turned purple upon the lower lip. Amongst all these floral beauties however, the ephemeral image that lingered was of a common (though rare on Mt. Hermon) Isatis lusitanica draping down in an arching movement over the steel-red cliffs, displaying its newly borne pendent fruits.
Isatis lusitanica (c) J Clutterbuck
The next morning, over a traditional Israeli breakfast that certainly set us up for the day ahead, Ori (Scientific Director of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens) had some exciting news. He had been tipped off about a location on Mt. Carmel where we could see Lilium candidum in flower. Having never seen any lilies in the wild before, this news caused quite a thrill and made me decide not to go back for thirds on the breakfast buffet.
We were a couple of hours from Mt. Carmel, which rises up alongside the Mediterranean Sea in north Israel. Ori wanted to take a look at a few areas along the way to show us more of the bounty of spring that this region has to offer. It soon became apparent that Ori had made this journey countless times for research and for pleasure. He seemed to know where we would find each plant that we discussed (and more often the ones we had never heard of), like being reunited with old friends. One such stop took us to a site where Salvia indica was peaking and swaying in the strong breeze. What has to be one of the most stunning and unusual sages I have ever seen, the oversized flowers with light purple hoods and royal purple specks within had an air of the exotic about them.
Salvia indica (c) J Clutterbuck
Watch out for the final part of Jack’s blog, which will appear soon.
The JBG and me 