Flower of the Week • Saipan HaTavurah

Carmel presents us with flowers in all seasons. In this column we will always present one of the Carmel flowers, at the same time as it appears in the field, and you will be invited to visit it in one of the places where it blooms.

Grain harvester

A geophyte (*) with a tuber that renews itself every year from the Iris family, with a single inflorescence stem that is 50-35 cm tall. Its leaves are pointed like a sword (sif), hence the name of the genus - Sifen. The inflorescence stem does not split and bears crimson flowers arranged in an ear of 10-6 flowers, shaped like an elongated mouthpiece, 5-4 cm long and about 1.5 cm in diameter. Sifen is common in the fields and fields of the Mediterranean region.

(*) An underground storage organ that accumulates materials and water that enable its renewal.

ID

A place to meet the flower of the week

• Drive on Abba Khushi road towards the southeast
• Immediately after the pedestrian bridge to the university, turn right (south) to Tallim parking lot
• Continue about 200 m to the parking lot (located on the left of the road)
• After the parking lot, a paved road begins, go down it (on foot or by car) for about 100 m, until the place where the road turns south (from here there is no more entrance by car).

Continue along the footpath, looking for the grain sedge. Items of it bloom all along the left side of the path.

The Legend of the Grain Thresher

Once upon a time, in a faraway land with golden hills and endless fields of wheat, there lived a little fairy named The import ship.

Sifen was not like the other fairies. Instead of sparkling wings or a magic wand, she had golden seeds in the palm of her hand, and a smile that could make the sun shine even on a cloudy day. She lived among the wheat stalks, in a secret place that no one saw, and every night, when all the children were asleep and the moon sent a soft ray into the fields, Sifen would go for a walk.

She whispered to the wheat grains:
"Grow, ripen, sweeten"
"People will thank you!"

And the wheat fields, as if they heard her, swayed in the wind as if they were dancing.

But one day, something changed.
The people in the nearby village stopped giving thanks to the fields. They harvested the wheat without singing, baked the bread without smiling, and even the children forgot to say a blessing before eating.

Sifan was very sad.
"If there is no joy in the grain, the bread will not taste good either," she whispered to the crow standing on the oats.

Then one night, she disappeared from the wheat fields and never returned.
When the next summer came, the fields did not grow. The earth was still, and the wind did not blow.

The villagers were worried. “What happened to our fields?” they asked.

One day, a little girl named Noga heard her grandmother talking about Sifan.
 Noga asked with sparkling eyes. "How do you bring back the grain fairy?"
“With love, my child,” said the grandmother, “and with a song from the heart.”

Noga went out into the field, sat down among the withered wheat stalks, and sang:

""A crop grows, a leaf rises in the wind."
Give warm bread, give an open day.
We will all sing to Sifin,
Come back, come – it's time."

And suddenly… the wind blew.
A light laugh was heard among the corn.
Then, like a soft light in the distance – the grain field appeared.

Noga smiled, waved her hand, and the seeds sparkled. The field was filled with color and life.

Since then, every year, before harvest, all the children of the village go out into the fields, sing and give thanks for the grain.
Because they know – in a place of song and love, the grain field blooms and with it the grain grows.