Papyrus hunting in Israel - the Hula Valley

The Hula marshes are in a broad north-south running valley with the Mountains of Upper Galilee to the west and the Golan Heights to the East   It is part of the Great Rift Valley, where there is such an abundance of Papyrus in sub-Saharan Africa.  Israel is one of the most northerly outliers for this widespread species, here it is at the edge of its range and has been described by both Chiovenda and Kükenthal as a distinct variety.

In 1935 a two man expedition was sent to the Huleh marshes of northern Palestine (Israel today) by the Trustees of the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund, RF Jones, was the botanist on the trip, he encountered about 36km2 of lake and malaria infested swamp, much of the 22km2 or so occupied by swamp was dense and impenetrable, some had barely been explored, and it comprised very predominantly Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus L.).

^{The Hula (=Huleh) lake & swamp, as reported by RF Jones following his 1935 expedition.}

Jones reports plans afoot even in 1935 to drain the valley, but most of the area was not drained until the 1950s, in a programme to provide land suitable for agriculture, essential to feed a young nation.  Today the areas Jones visited look more like this:

^{Cotton (Gossypium sp.) is grown extensively in the Hula Valley, along with many other crops including Peanuts, Watermelons, Maize, Lucerne, and top fruit such as Avocados, Pomegranetes and Peaches.  Photograph 08-07-2016.}

^{Tree lined road across the former Lake Hula, note the whitish soil of the former lake bottom on the sides of the road.}

I am grateful to the Percy Sladen Memorial Trust and the Botanical Research Fund for funding my own excursion, of which this is a diary.  I am not out, sadly, to explore the swamps which Jones documented, which are little more than vestigial, but instead to bring back valuable samples of the Papyrus that remains, to bolster international collections and to provide a resource for furthering phylogeographic studies of this complex, intriguing and enduringly valuable plant.