 |
| Turkish Poppies |
In April I was fortunate enough to enjoye a week’s
coach tour of Turkey’s Lycian coast and rugged mountains. The area is renowned
for its ancient monuments so we spent much of our time tramping round ancient ruins
in various stages of restoration. Although fascinated by these classical and
Christian sites I was even more enthralled by the botanical features of a Mediterranean
spring. Of all the many wild flowers in bloom
that month the blood-red poppy was the most conspicuous.
It has always puzzled me why so many Israelis confuse their sturdy
, flamboyant Judaean anemones with poppies. The poppies, I remember seeing in Palestine
were more like the fragile vermillion poppies we have in Britain. On the Lycian coast ,
however, we saw poppies which, unless viewed at close range, could easily be
mistaken for the anemones that turned
the hillsides round Jerusalem crimson each spring.
 |
| Anemones in \israel photographed bt Etan J Tal |
Another plant, a small
tree, covered in purple sweet pea shaped flowers, caught the eye of everyone on
the coach. It is known as the Judas tree from the legend that this was the tree
from which the traitor apostle Judas hanged himself.
Although the crimson anemones play a starring role in my
emotional recollections childhood, strangely the Judas tree in all its springtime glory does not feature in
any childhood memory. All I recall is my father , in the height of arid summer,
pointing at an insignificant tree growing on a rocky hillside, and telling me
the associated legend. This has
reinforced my realization of how very selective my memories are.
Incidentally, on my return to England I saw a Judas tree in lower a few houses down the road from my daughter's house in Market Harborough. Now I know it will grow in England I am adding it to my wish list. If I get to plant it though it will be in my garden not for the deeply sentimental reasons I grow my my fig and apricot trees and my anemones and miniature cyclamen but purely as a souvenir of my holiday in Turkey.
