Wildflowers of Israel

[Higgs Boson]

Here's an interesting article about origin of many seeds we grow in So. Calif: =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Wildflowers of Israel

by Leslie Berliant, Contributing Writer

Lupinus Mountain Blue. Below: Ammi Visnaga. Photos courtesy SeedCount

Enter any Trader Joe=92s grocery store in Southern California and you are likely to find vibrant sunflowers with golden orange leaves and a dark center among the bouquets and potted plants. What many customers might not realize is that the sunflower being sold is called Jerusalem Gold, which is grown in Santa Barbara from a seed native to Israel.

Many of the cucumbers, bell peppers, basil and tomatoes grown in Southern California also come from Israeli seeds. Even some vegetables and herbs imported from places like Mexico come from seeds that originate in Israel.

Israeli agriculture has had a big impact around the world, even if few people know about it. And that is true in Southern California, too, where a Mediterranean climate provides ideal conditions for flora from the Jewish state.

(rest of article with pictures at

Hypatia

[Billy]

Otherwise known as "Occupied Palestine".

[David Hare-Scott]

Is it native to Israel? I mean in the sense that its first know cultivation was in Israel from wild stock. I don't know.

This is misleading as it allows one to think that these plants originated in Israel. Now Iraelis may be responsible for some fine cultivars (such as the Ha Ogen (sp?) melon) but tomatoes and peppers originated in the New World.

David

[David Hare-Scott]

Billy give it a rest please. There are plenty of places you can go to have this fight (sorry I meant dialogue) but how about making this not one of them.

David

[Pat Kiewicz]

SeedCount

customers

Actually, I'm fairly certain that sunflowers were North American natives, originally.

A whole host of what have become some of our most commonly consumed vegetables were originally domesticated by the native people of the Americas.

The advantage of seed production in Israel, for many of these species, is the *lack* of wild ancestors or closely related native plants. That and, most likely, easy isolation from large scale farming of the same vegetables.

FWIW, I notice that Japan and Holland turn up as countries origins for quite a few of my seed packets.

[Cheryl Isaak]

The early settlers in Israel sent a lot of effort hybridizing many plants (fruits, vegetables, trees and flowers) to the semi-arid desert.

C

[Higgs Boson]

It's still going on; Israel is a world leader in this work. Current research is based in part on the work of one of the great pioneering Israeli agronomists, Aaron Aaronson. Lots of info on-line, about him, plus considerable material in books about the early efforts of the chalutzim, or pioneers.

These young pioneers, some just in their teens and twenties, escaping from the pogroms of Europe, suffered a terrible death rate from malaria and other ailments, overwork and malnutrition, but they persevered; they drained the swamps and "made the desert bloom".

[David Hare-Scott]

Indeed they did, sadly the article doesn't really make that clear.

David

[Cheryl Isaak]

I could post about that, but some one might label me anti-Islam.

C

[Billy]

I understand, genocide is a tasteless subject.