Plants of the eastern Mediterranean

I went to a presentation tonight by the director and head scientist at the Jerusalem Botanical Garden.  It was fascinating.  They showed a slide that depicted the bioregions of Israel.  If you drew a line through the country, roughly from the 2 o'clock position to the 7 or 8 o'clock position, then portion above the line is Mediterranean, the portion below the line is desert.  The interface of the two runs right through Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. 

There are 2400 native species, half of which are annuals!   Imagine that - half your native species annuals, several of which bloom for less than two weeks each year. 

They have some absolutely awesome native iris - Iris bismarkiana, Iris autropurpurea, and Iris haynei among them (two of those links are to photos by the person who gave the presentation tonight, Dr. Ori Fragman-Sapir).  Native pollinators have declined so there are issues with regeneration of native populations but where pollination gets some human assistance, it is reasonable. 

He also showed images of many other plants, mostly bulbs and flowering annuals.  It was fascinating.  

A google search didn't show up any US sources for these bulbs.  Any suggestions?

Nan





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Nan Sterman, Plant Soup, Inc TM
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