Dead Sea, Flora

Deadsea Flora, jordan

	Scientific name: Phoenix dactylifera Family: Arecaceae Common English name: Date Palm Common Arabic name: Nakheel >> more

	Scientific name: Calotropis procera Family: Asclepiadaceae Common English names: rubber bush, apple of Sodom, king's crown, rooster tree, and giant milkweed Common Arabic names: Ashir, Ishir >> more

Scientific name: Phoenix dactylifera Family: Arecaceae Common English name: Date Palm Common Arabic name: Nakheel
		This palm is the national symbol of Saudi Arabia! This palm was represented on coins and monuments by the Carthaginians and used as an ornament in triumph pageants by the Greeks and Romans. The life-giving tree of the North African and Arabian oasis contributes shade and nutritious fruit to many desolate regions as well as building material. Female and male individuals are present. Flowers are born in bunches at the top of the tree. Only the female trees produce fruit, but one male tree can produce enough pollen to pollinate 40-50 female trees (See Traditional Pollination of Date Palm). It is a plant sensitive to the cold; it lives on any kind of soil, provided that it is fertile and well drained. Dates, due to their high sugar content, represent the basic, fundamental food for North Africa, Arabia and Persia's peoples, where hundreds of varieties are grown for commercial purposes. spot

Scientific name: Calotropis procera Family: Asclepiadaceae Common English names: rubber bush, apple of Sodom, king's crown, rooster tree, and giant milkweed Common Arabic names: Ashir, Ishirl
		Poison!! Watch out, if you cut this plant, it exudes copious milky sap, which causes irritation and temporary blindness if eye contact occurs. Although viewed by locals as a poisonous useless plant, it has many benefits. The root bark is used to treat leprosy, fever, malaria and snake bite. It is recommended as a host plant for butterflies. In Africa, it is used as chew sticks when dry. When the fruit is ripe, it opens to release numerous seeds with tufts of long silky hairs at one end. The silky hairs of these seeds were used in the past to stuff pillows. Giant milkweed favors open habitat with little competition, which is the case in overgrazed pastures and rangelands! The species is distributed form India to Iran and Africa. In Jordan you can find it in the Jordan rift valley, near the historical Sodom, the source of its name, used to exist.