A Garden Among the Hills: The Floral Heritage of Palestine

A Garden Among the Hills: The Floral Heritage of Palestine

Authors of scientific text: Jamil Harb, PhD and Munir Naser, PhD

Reviewer of scientific text, including confirmation of botanical classification: Sumaya Farhat Naser, PhD

Publication year: 2019

Page count: 238

Language: Arabic, English

Size: 20.5x29 cm

This catalogue serves as a botanical reference that documents the variety of plants spread throughout the Palestinian Museum gardens. It provides information about each plant’s etymology, history, biology, medicinal and aesthetic benefits, as well as other popular uses. Also included are details of the plants’ national and cultural significance and photographs of each plant in bloom from their places in the gardens. 

The English edition of the catalogue begins with musings on what gardens mean to us in a short article titled Garden Gathering, written by Omar Tesdell, PhD. Tesdell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Birzeit University; he studies landscape and agroecological transformation in the Middle East and the Americas. Tesdell is also on the museum’s Board of Directors. 

The catalogue is divided into chapters based on the different sections of the gardens themselves and the flora to be found within them. These sections are as the following: the Café Terrace; the Amphitheatre; the Aromatic Garden; the Medicinal Garden; the Pistacia Palaestina Garden; the Garden of Resistance; the Variety Garden (of both traditional and contemporary plants); the Native Oak Garden; the Olive Garden; Traditional Cereal Crops; Traditional Legume Crops; and finally, the Meadow.