Michael Zohary (; born 9 April 1898 in Bóbrka, Galicia (

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

); died 16 April 1983 in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

) was a pioneering Israeli

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Biography

Michael Schein (later Zohary) was born into a Jewish family in Bóbrka, near

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

(then Austria-Hungarian Empire). He immigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine in 1920. After working building roads, he attended the Teacher's Seminary in Jerusalem. He published the monumental ''Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East''. He was responsible for introduction of the important principle of antiteleochory which adumbrated that seed germination of the desert plant is ensured by dispersal near the parent plant. His son,

Daniel Zohary Daniel (Dani) Zohary (; 24 April 1926 - 16 December 2016) was an Israeli plant geneticist, agronomist, and professor at the Hebrew University. He was the co-author of a comprehensive review of the origin and spread of domesticated plants in southw ...

(1926–2006) was also a highly published botanist specializing in prehistoric plant domestication. His grandson, Ehud Zohary (1958 -present) is a neurobiologist. All three generations were/are faculty members at the same institute. In 1931,

Alexander Eig Alexander Eig (, ; 1894 – 30 July 1938) was a botanist, one of the first plant researchers in Israel, head of the department of Botany at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and co-founder of the National Botanic Garden of Israel on Mount Scopus ...

founded the National Botanic Garden of Israel on Mount Scopus, together with Michael Zohary and Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan. In 1952 he was appointed professor of botany at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. As well as his interest in the plant geography and vegetation of Israel and Jordan, from 1950 to 1965 Zohary's research paid special attention to Turkey and Iran. He published ''The Plant Life of Israel'' in 1962 and a major article on the vegetation of Iran in the Israel Journal of Botany in 1964. His work on the Flora Palaestina resulted in the publication of the first two volumes, ''Pteridophyta'' (1966), and ''Dialypetalae'' (1972), meanwhile his major two-volume work, ''Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East'', appeared in 1973. Zohary's best known work, however, is ''A New Analytical Flora of Israel'' (1976, in Hebrew). Zohary officially retired in 1967, but as Professor Emeritus continued his research, his final book being ''Plants of the Bible'' (1982). He died on 15 April 1983 in Jerusalem. The plants ''Anthemis zoharyana'' (1938), ''Bellevalia zoharyi'' (1939), and ''Stachys zoharyana'' (1948), are all named after him.

Awards

* In 1954, Zohary was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

, for

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

Works

* (published posthumously) * "The Segetal Plants Communities of Palestine", in: ''Vegetatio'' 2 (1950), pp. 387–411 * ''Flora Palaestina'', I–II, Jerusalem 1966–1971 * ''Plants of the Bible'', Cambridge 1982 * ''Domestication of Plants in the Old World'' (3rd edition), Oxford 2000 * "The diffusion of South and East Asian and of African crops into the belt of Mediterranean agriculture", in: ''Plants for Food and Medicine'' (H.D.V. Prendergast, et al. editors), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1998, pp. 123–134 With

and Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan he organised the distribution of plant specimens from Israel in several

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

series.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The first series issued in 1930 is entitled ''Flora exsiccata Palaestinae a sectione botanica Universitatis Hebraicae Hierosolymitanae edita''.

References

. Jerusalem, Academy of Sciences and Letters. 1966-79. Textvolumes and Plate volumes. *Zohary, Michael. ''Geobotanical foundations of the Middle East.'' Stuttgart, G. Fischer, 1973. 2 v. (x, 738 p.) illus. 25 cm. * Avishai Shmida and David Heller, ''Michael Zohary - Giant of Israel Botany'', in "Israel - Land and Nature" Fall 1983, ppg. 33-35. ISSN 0333-6867 {{DEFAULTSORT:Zohary, Michael 1898 births 1983 deaths Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israeli botanists Israeli Jews Israel Prize in life sciences recipients Israel Prize in life sciences recipients who were botanists Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Jews from Mandatory Palestine Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Natural history of Israel Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Ukrainian Jews Burials at Har HaMenuchot Weizmann Prize recipients

Biography

Awards

Works

See also

References

Further reading