Orchids of Israel

About this book

Language: English with Hebrew and scientific nomenclature

Orchids of Israel presents the first comprehensive overview of all distinguishable taxa of Israel with their scientific names, basionyms, the most important synonyms, type information, etymologies, descriptions, flowering periods, habitats, elevations and distributions. This is supplemented and discussed with short notes about closely related taxa, distribution, endangerment and protection. The individual taxa are systematically clustered together and illustrated with several photographs, showing their most important characteristics and diversity. Completed with distribution and arrival map (showing one of the best sites).

Please note that, although the title does not mention it, the distribution information in this book includes the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

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Biography

Karel (C.A.J.) Kreutz (1954) formerly working as ICT-Manager for the Government of Home Affairs and Justice Department, since his childhood travelling in Europe, North Africa and the Near East, studying its native orchids. He is fascinated by their distribution patterns, threats and protection, but especially by their taxonomic and nomenclatural status. He has written several books, mainly about the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, Crimea, Rhodes, Cyprus and more than 200 contributions in amateur and scientific journals. The European Broomrapes (Orobanche) has also drawn also his attention. Kreutz is about to publish (2021) a complete overview of all European orchid taxa, including the species of North Africa and the Middle East, with all typifications and scans of the types, basionym, synonyms and UTM 25-km grid distribution maps. It is based on the latest taxonomy and nomenclature, taking account of research-based DNA, chromosome and other genetic and statistical analyses, pollinators and pheromones, as well as morphological, geographical, phenological, chorological and
ecological factors. Kreutz is afliated with Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Asaf Shifman (1938) was born in Kibbutz Gvat in the Jezreel Valley. As a child, he showed an interest in nature and botany, particularly in the orchid family, introduced to him by his teacher, Bracha Rabinov. After graduating from the Faculty for Agriculture in Rehovot with a degree in Agriculture and Management, Shifman performed many roles on his kibbutz, including farm coordinator, consultant to a small town in the Galilee, and CEO of Plastro Gvat, a drip irrigation equipment company. In 1987, Shifman and his wife lef the kibbutz. They lived in Afula for a few years and eventually built a home in Moshav Merhavia. During this period, Shifman held several positions: farm coordinator for the Kfar Baruch community, crop dusting with an ultralight aircraft, and managing the economic department of the Nature Reserve Authority. He has been working in agricultural assessment since 1990.

Rien (M.H.) Schot (1968) was always interested in nature, especially in Dutch flora and the Alps. In his youth, he specialised in wild orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean area. From 2001 to 2007 he was Chairman of the Dutch Society for Wild European Orchids, and for many years he automated and maintained its archive of records of orchid observations in Europe and Israel. Elaborating on this, he developed software to create distribution maps and supported Kreutz with such maps for several of his books. Schot was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and studied Electronics (Computer & Sofware Architectures) and Management at the Delft University of Technology. After his study, he worked for several IT companies and, since 2005 directed international business in a region that included Israel. In this period, he merged an Israeli high-tech company into IBM (a major ICT company). Because of this, he travelled to Israel very frequently and had the opportunity to research Israeli orchids for more than ten years, occasionally accompanying Shifman. In 2012 Schot followed God’s call, left business, completed a theology study and become a minister (pastor) in a Protestant church in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, near Rotterdam. As a Board member of the
Israeli Affairs department of his church Schot still travels to Israel regularly.

Yeshayahu (Ishi) Talmon (1947) is a chemical engineer by profession and a lover of nature at heart. He was born and raised in Tel Aviv and lives in Haifa, Israel. He obtained a B.Sc. (summa cum laude) and an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, and a PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Ishi has been a faculty member of the Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering for over forty years now. During that time he served several years as Department Chairman and later as the Head of the Technion Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI). Talmon’s scientific work focuses on how molecules aggregate spontaneously in liquids. His main experimental tools are high-resolution electron microscopes. Currently, he is a very active Emeritus Professor. For his scientific contributions Ishi was awarded a Doctor of Science honoris causa degree by the University of Lund, Sweden, and the Overbeek Gold Medal of the European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS). In 2021 he was elected Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Since childhood, Talmon has enjoyed hikes in nature, which later developed to special interest in field botany in general, and wild orchids in particular, combined with a passion for photography