guide to the jewplexed
 

Green for the Green - Saving Israel's Biodiversity

During Sukkot while we shake the four species--the lulav and etrog--in Israel there are endangered species that should also have our attention.

According to the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, as a result of increased urbanization, several plants, including some that are only found in Israel, are in danger of becoming extinct.

"Israel is an area of high biodiversity, with some 2,300 wild plants. But urbanization and development are putting more than 400 species in danger by destroying or interfering with their natural habitats," reads the text on their website.

To help save the plants, the Gardens have begun to reach out to the public with a program called "Adopt-a-a-Plant." Adopting one plant for five years costs NIS 10,000 (approx. $2500).
Where does the green go?

According to Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir, the head scientist at the Gardens, who communicated with me recently, the funds cover the "whole process of conservation: plant collecting in nature, plant propagation in the botanical gardens' nursery, and finally planting on the grounds."

"We monitor the plant and research their 'behavior.' In Many cases we share our endangered plants with other botanical gardens and plant shelter gardens," he said.

The Gardens, which opened to the public in 1985 on the edge of the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University, collect,
endangered flower
Photo: Yael Orgad
cultivate and teach about these endangered species and sometimes are even able to return them to nature.

Fragman-Sapir told Ynet recently that some of the endangered pants, "Are of obvious benefit - they are ornamental, beautiful, or of some economic value. The rest are just weeds or plants with no specific, known value. But all play a role in their ecosystems."

"Nature is like a huge genetic Bible. We have learned to read the first half page. But we don't yet know everything there is to know about plants and animals which have no obvious importance," he said.

"We know that around 30 species have already disappeared," added Fragman-Sapir.

As part of the Adopt-a-plant project, a group is currently being formed to save an endangered flowering plant with light purple blossoms found in the Golan region of Northern Israel that project leader Tal Secemsky describes as "Amazingly beautiful." Called "Colchicum feinbruniae," the plant is named after Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan who was a professor and researcher at the Hebrew University Jerusalem.

So far, out of the $2500 needed approx. $130 has been raised to save the plant. Here's how to donate.

Secemsky also related that for Sukkot, they build a sukkah on the Botanical Garden's grounds. This year, in addition to representing the holiday's four species--the myrtle, willow, palm and etrog, they hope to grow support for some of Israel's lesser known species that need to be celebrated as well.

 

 

 


Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."