One of Israel’s rarest plants—the spear-leaved dogbane—is currently blooming in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens after its extinction from the Negev Desert. The species, which now survives only in isolated areas along the Carmel coast and in the Acre Valley, was once far more widespread, including in En Avdat National Park in the Negev.
The plants currently blooming in the Botanical Gardens originate from specimens collected decades ago at En Avdat by Atai Yoffe, director of the Botanical Garden at Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Heh. As part of the conservation initiative, researchers have been propagating the plants under controlled conditions in the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, with the explicit goal of reintroducing the spear-leaved dogbane to En Avdat National Park in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
According to Noam Bar-Shai, curator of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in Givat Ram, conserving these plants is particularly significant. This species typically thrives in cooler, more temperate regions than Israel, whereas the now-extinct Negev population likely developed unique genetic adaptations that enabled it to survive the harsh desert climate.
Until it is returned to the Negev, visitors can admire the plant’s beauty at the “refuge” pond at the Botanical Gardens’ northern edge, where clusters of small, bell-shaped flowers, delicately patterned with stripes on their pink petals, can be seen alongside other rare species.
“Each success reinforces our efforts to preserve Israel’s unique plant diversity,” says Nurit Hibsher, director of the Central Region Forestry Department at Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). “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.”
The experiences and protocols developed through the initiative will be published in an upcoming digital book titled Endangered Plants in Israel: A Guide to Propagation and Cultivation. It provides practical guidelines for cultivating and propagating some 500 rare plant species, designed to make essential knowledge available to conservationists, gardeners, researchers and nature enthusiasts.
