Chrysanthemums: Creates habitats for many creatures

Every plant can produce dozens or even hundreds of flowers.

By ITSIK MAROM
Chrysanthemums 370 (photo credit: ITSIK MAROM)
Chrysanthemums 370
(photo credit: ITSIK MAROM)
The Chrysanthemum coronarium is a familiar spring flower in Israel, known in Hebrew as hartzit.
The plants, with their yellow flowers, grow like weeds almost everywhere.
While they grow slowly in a cold climate, in a warm region they grow very fast and can reach a height and width of over a meter. Every plant can produce dozens or even hundreds of flowers. The chrysanthemum can grow separately but usually it grows in a large group that covers a big area. It is common to see large fields of this plant, which grow wild mostly in the Center and North of the country, creating a dense yellow carpet of millions of flowers.
This forest of flowers is home to countless creatures; among them are bees, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, wasps, spiders and a lot more. These attract larger predators such as birds and lizards and all enjoy the plenty of the season from March to May, and try to close their cycle of life before the last flower dries out.
The chrysanthemum is used to this day by Arabs and Druse as a food source, since the green leaves are edible and typically used in salads. The yellow petals can be used for medicine; boiling the petals and drinking the water is a Beduin remedy to ease fever and reduce stomachaches.
The chrysanthemum encapsulates additional nutritional benefits as a source of vitamins and antioxidants, which are usually overlooked by most Israelis, who don’t really know how to use them. This fact, of course, may be a good thing, because it helps the proliferation of the species for the enjoyment of everyone – human or otherwise – in the spring months.
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