The Nazareth Iris is endangered in the Nazareth area. This is what the researchers of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technion put forward
In the photo: the Nazarene Iris, a beautiful flower that belongs to the Temple Iris group, one of the largest flowers in Israel. In the temple engagement group, the Nazarene stands out with a beautiful color contrast between its white upper part and its black lower part.
"The Nazareth Iris, a beautiful and unique flower, is found in small concentrations in the Upper and Lower Galilee, the Hula Valley and the Hermon," says Bashmat Segal, who studied the plant in her master's thesis, under the guidance of Dr. Yohai Carmel. "The reserve in Nazareth is very small, about 130 dunams, and it is precisely there that the population of Irus is in decline."
The reasons Basmat Segal found for this decline are new neighborhoods built nearby and roads connecting them, creating "Iros patches" that cannot manage genetic connections, because of the roads and houses, and at the end of the process, the Iros population may reach a genetic bottleneck and shrink to the point of extinction. Another reason is the thorny boat. This plant spreads and stops the growth of irises. It turned out to the Technion researchers that it was precisely the cessation of traditional agriculture that was intended to preserve the iris in the iris reserve located near the Nazareth cemetery, that caused the thorny syrah to spread at the expense of the iris. The planting of the existing horn is also harmful to iris, which is not shade tolerant.
For the purpose of her research, Bashmat Segal marked 24 plots, 5x5 meters each. In four plots she burned the thorny boat, in four plots she only trimmed it and in four plots she did not touch it at all. In other plots she referred to wild herbs and did not find that they affect the iris. In the plots where she burned or pruned the thorny syrah - there was an increase in the flowering of the Nazareth Iris and the number of plants.
That's why Basmat Segal suggests burning or cutting down the thorny boat in the Irosim Reserve in Nazareth, in order to save them, since the construction can no longer be stopped.
