A journey north. Part 3: we arrive at Mt Carmel

This is the final part of the blog by intern Jack C, writing about an epic trip he made last year while in Israel.

We stopped at an abandoned Circassian cemetery, right on the Syrian border. Amongst overgrown graves, dimly lit by the dappled light entering through an almost closed canopy, were a couple of species of Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia paecilantha, with its faint yellow limb covered in psychedelic brown speckles and Aristolochia scabridula, a more dark and mysterious character lurking patiently for flies to pollinate it. Just on the edge of the cemetery in a clearing bathed in sunlight, a lone Iris mesopotamica stood basking in all its glory, the huge flower hovering on its stem at eye level. We had seen the foliage of this spectacular species where it originates from in Mt. Hermon, but it is often planted in old cemeteries. While exploring the graveyard we could hear the distant sounds of conflict in Syria, bringing an unsettling reminder of the volatile nature of this region.

Aristolochia paecilantha (c) Jack Clutterbuck

Eryngium creticum (c) Jack Clutterbuck

As we reached Mt. Carmel the excitement of finding the Madonna lily was building. We walked down a dusty burnt-red track lined with electric blue Eryngium creticum and monstrous Onopordum cynarocephalum. A small opening in the scrub revealed a worn path up into the cliffs above. Hans (the Propagation-track intern), who is no stranger to plant hunting, started scrambling up the path like a hound on a trail. ‘Where there is a path, there will be flowers’, he proclaimed as he disappeared out of sight. In no time at all he was yelling for us to follow him. We clambered up the cliff through oak scrub using all four limbs until we reached an opening. There was Hans, stood amongst the gleaming white Lilium candidum that appeared to jolt out of the volcanic rock. Gradually everyone made it up to the lily filled opening that looked out to the Mediterranean Sea. We sat admiring them for some time, struck by their graceful presence and pleased that we’d managed to encounter their beauty. We all inhaled the potent fragrance that was being released from their immense white trumpet flowers. Cheap toilet air freshener we all agreed.

Lilium candidum (c) Jack Clutterbuck

On the walk back to the car I tried to recount all the plants that I had seen over the past two days. Too many for my head I thought. Later that week I would rediscover many of them being cultivated at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, where Ori has been building up a substantial ex-situ collection of Israel’s rare and endangered plants for the purposes of conservation, research, and education. Suddenly in the distance a jackal began to howl, and gradually a whole chorus joined in that echoed around the mountain.

Coming soon … the latest blog from our current intern, James T