Located in the East of the Bekaa, the "seed bank" preserves thousands of seeds from the 2,600 different genera of Lebanese flora. (Credit: Tamara Saade/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Picture a bend in the road. Across from it stands a small furniture shop, followed by a private lot beside the road. There, like a peacock displaying its feathers, about 15 irises (sawsan) have unfurled their white petals, speckled with purple. In May 2020, the village of Mais al-Jabal, in the Marjayoun district, was in full bloom. The sight was rare: The flowers bloom for no more than five days a year. Here, just a stone's throw from the south Lebanon border, botanist Magda Bou Dagher-Kharrat saw Iris lortetii for the last time.Only a tiny population remained, reduced to about 15 plants. Bou Dagher-Kharrat hoped to collect a few seeds to preserve the species outside its natural habitat in case it came under threat. But the project never got off the ground. In 2021, a lack of funding halted the collection effort as Lebanon sank...
Picture a bend in the road. Across from it stands a small furniture shop, followed by a private lot beside the road. There, like a peacock displaying its feathers, about 15 irises (sawsan) have unfurled their white petals, speckled with purple. In May 2020, the village of Mais al-Jabal, in the Marjayoun district, was in full bloom. The sight was rare: The flowers bloom for no more than five days a year. Here, just a stone's throw from the south Lebanon border, botanist Magda Bou Dagher-Kharrat saw Iris lortetii for the last time.Only a tiny population remained, reduced to about 15 plants. Bou Dagher-Kharrat hoped to collect a few seeds to preserve the species outside its natural habitat in case it came under threat. But the project never got off the ground. In 2021, a lack of funding halted the collection effort as Lebanon sank...