Also known as rose of Jericho, Maryam’s flower, flower of St. Mary, St. Mary’s flower, Mary’s flower, and white mustard flower, this annual herb is native to the deserts of western Asia. It is a member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, that also includes cabbage, broccoli, and alyssum. The prostrate plant grows about 6″ tall and has a heavy tap-root that produces a 12″ wide flat disc like structure of numerous slender branches that bear small, obovate, gray leaves and tiny, white, axillary flowers. Photo Credit Wikipedia
When dryness occurs the leaves of the plant drop, and the branches contract into a tight ball with the tips at the top and the fruits inside and attached. At this point the wind may break the ball from the root and blow it around as a tumbleweed. The seeds can remain dormant for years and when the rains come again the ball containing them uncurls, the plant seems to come to life again, the seed capsules pop open, and the seeds germinate. The plant’s apparent resurrection has led to veneration by Christians who believed that the flowers opened at Christ’s birth and closed at the Crucifixion, and that the plant sprung up wherever the Holy Family rested in their Flight to Egypt and is the symbol of the resurrection.
Palestinian tumbleweed likes full sun and sandy, dry, well-drained soil but needs water to reproduce. Propagation is by seed.
The genus name, Anastatica, comes from the Greek word anastasis, meaning resurrection, referring to the fact that no matter how dry the plant gets it can recover its shape by being placed in water. The specific epithet, hierochuntica, comes from the classical name for the town of Jericho, Hierikous.
Karen Meyers