Friday, February 25, 2011

B"H, The Rain Has Given Us a Beautiful Spring

I'll start with the post-rain winter flower which, as a wild flower, the crocus blooms in some of the strangest places.  It's also cultivated.



Sorry, but botany, naming all the flowers, is not one of my talents.  I just enjoy them and photograph them for your viewing pleasure.





I'll end with this almond blossom on the shekaydiya, which I photographed in Ofra.  The other flowers are all from my Shiloh neighborhood.


Please remember that without sufficient G-d-given rain our Land wouldn't be blooming.

12 comments:

Tzivia said...

My amateur botanical guesses! (from the top)
רקפת rakefet / Cyclamen - not a guess
כלנית kalanit / Anemone - ?
נרקיס narkis / Narcissus - daffodil, narcissus or jonquil
רקפת rakefet / Cyclamen - ? a red one?
שקדיה, of course, as you said.

What a beautiful sight. I think I will show my kids after we daven in the morning - to show them exactly WHAT we're davening for when we say "tal u'matar."

Good Shabbos!

Batya said...

Jennifer, thanks. Shabbat Shalom

Anonymous said...

lovin' the land man.

Leah, Maaleh Adumim said...

@ Jennifer -
yes, the first is definitely
רקפת rakefet / Cyclamen

the second one is not necessarily
כלנית kalanit / Anemone

it could be פרג parag/ Wild poppy

the two look very similar; they can be distinguished because the poppy has 4 petals, and the anemone has 6. also the wild poppy's petals are relatively thin, the anemone's petals are thicker. in earlier decades (like the first half of the 20th century) wild anemones were quite common - there is even a well known song, made famous by Shoshana Damari about the "kalaniyot". the song describes a little girl picking armfuls of wild anemones; and then in the next stanza, the little girl is all grown up and her granddaughter is bringing her wild anemones that she picked in the field. the refrain is that generations come and go, but the wild anemones will always fill the fields with their beautiful red color http://www.hebrewsongs.com/?song=kalaniot. the ironic thing about the song is - that because in previous generations people picked a lot of wild anemones (as described in the song) the plant has become rare and is now a protected flower. the wild poppy is today more common, and it's probably what we see in the picture. maybe Batya can go and count petals and let us know.

the third one is probably as you say
נרקיס narkis / Narcissus - daffodil, narcissus or jonquil
maybe Batya can take a close-up picture of it so we can see if it has the daffodil/narcissus shape

and the 4th one, I'm not sure, maybe it is as you say
רקפת rakefet / Cyclamen - ? a red one?
Batya can take a close-up of that one to see if it has the same leaves and flower shape as the pink cyclamens in the first picture. I think I see some of those leaves below the red flowers; and the large light-green leaves behind the red flowers probably belong to another plant next to it. but maybe Batya can check for us.

Leah, Maaleh Adumim said...

and @Batya - regardless of the botanical names, thanks for the beautiful pictures!

Batya said...

Thanks, Leah,
The red one is rare; I took it a few weeks ago and don' know if it's still there. I don't know if the one that looks like a daffodil really is; it's much smaller than the usual. But I'm not expert.

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
Beautiful photographs.
In Hebrew both the daffodil and the narcissus are called narkis, and I have an idea that they are closely related. The flowers of the narcissus are much smaller than, but similar in appearance to, the daffodil. I'll third the identification of the first cyclamen.
For the kalanit/anemone-nurit/Persian buttercup-pereg/poppy question I turned to a children's guide to flowers by Miri Leshem. They bloom in the order that I listed, and can overlap: kalanit/nurit or nurit/pereg. The kalanit blooms at the end of winter, the nurit in spring and the pereg at the end of spring. Petals: kalanit,6; nurit, 5-8; pereg,4. Center of flower: kalanit,red at the start, as the flower grows a white mark appears at the base of each petal; nurit, brown-black; pereg,at the base a each petal a large black mark bordered by a white line. Two petals of the pereg cup the other two.

Leah, Maaleh Adumim said...

Hadassah, daffodil and narcissus are different names for the same plant. http://www.daffodilusa.org/daffodils/faq.html
(although I am used to calling the white ones "narcissus" and the yellow ones "daffodil" in English; and both "narkis" in Hebrew)

and thanks for the excerpt from the book by Miri Leshem - sounds like a good book to have!

Leah, Maaleh Adumim said...

Batya, daffodils/narkis come in many sizes. we usually think of large yellow daffodils, but there are small yellow ones, white ones, and white-and-yellow combined.

Batya said...

Leah, Hadassa, thanks, and what're your thoughts about the red one?

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
Leah, I'm going to have to have a talk with my source, who has never been wrong before about flowers! It's a good thing I didn't embarrass myself in a unfriendly forum. I entered a daffodil society's site. One of their top questions is "What is the difference between a daffodil and a narcissus?" The answer: none. Narcissus is the Latin name, daffodil the English.
Miri Leshem's book is one of the Professor Pitzpon Teva (Tiny Nature) series. The illustrations are beautiful and the information precise and succinct.
If I could see the red one more clearly I would break out my Flora and Fauna of Israel encyclopedia and look closely at the pictures. I might try anyway.

Batya said...

I don't see the distinctive crocus leaves on the red flower.