Zygophyllum Dumosum

Zygophyllum Dumosum

Bean Caper Plant

“The physical location of the bouquet containing Zygophyllum dumosum appears on the body image’s upper chest (Figure 6, 10). Here, two young but well-developed succulent leaves are visualized. Each leaf has a terete petiole and a pair of flat leaflets (Figures 10 to 12). Such leaves, in the Near Eastern flora, are found only in the genus Zygophyllum. The images of two single petioles marked in this area are of at least 1-year-old leaves. The only species of Zygophyllum in Israel and its neighboring countries that sheds its pair of leaflets annually is Z. dumosum (Zohary, 1972; Feinbrun-Dothan & Danin, 1991). The top leaf in Figures 10 and 11 was seen in all the five kinds of photographs dealt with in Table 5. The fact that the Zygophyllum leaf image is black in the fluorescence photo means that the image is made up of the image-linen type fibrils that do not fluoresce. The chronological significance of Z. dumosum in the phenologic stage of bloom seen on the Shroud (it has a flower and two kinds of leaves) is that it was cut between the months of December and April (in the context of the Judean Desert). This is the particular season when both leaf types and flowers are found together on the plant. The geographical implications of Z. dumosum are significant beyond that of other species associated with the Shroud because the plant is endemic (Figure 9). Zygophyllum dumosum grows only in Israel, Sinai, and a small area of Jordan