Rare flower blooms in Jerusalem Botanical Gardens due to conservation efforts

A rare flowering plant, known as the spear-leaved dogbane, has recently bloomed in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens due to conservation efforts.

“The plants currently blooming in the Botanical Gardens originate from specimens collected decades ago at En Avdat by Atai Yoffe, the director of the Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Heh Botanical Garden,” Jewish News Syndicate reported.

Set in the heart of the Negev Desert, En Avdat National Park features a large canyon and waterfall, and a flowing brook. Once home to Byzantine-era monks, it now stands as one of Israel’s most treasured national parks – an oasis in the Negev Desert.

While the spear-leaved dogbane once flourished there, the plant has gone extinct in the Negev and “now survives only in isolated areas along the Carmel coast and in the Acre Valley.”

JNS reported that the conservation project has “the explicit goal of reintroducing the spear-leaved dogbane to En Avdat in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.”

Nurit Hibsher, director of the Central Region Forestry Department at KKL-JNF, Israel’s national forestry and land development organization, told JNS, “The spear-leaved dogbane presents a dual challenge: conserving a species at severe risk of extinction while attempting to reintroduce a vanished population, and preserving its distinct genetic traits developed under desert conditions.”

“Our progress with this species represents another step forward in saving many more,” she said.