Lilies of the Field

For someone who studied floristry, I have a lot to learn about identifying flowers, especially the wild varieties. I wasn’t expecting to see flowers in Israel in January, but occasionally at a distance saw scatterings of red blooms in the Galilee. They seems too short to be poppies, but then perhaps?……

Today I was reading a post by Gila at “My Shrapnel”. She had just visited Sderot, which is famous for it’s poppies. I googled the Botanical name and sure enough, here were the “lilies of the field” I was seeing all over northern Israel.

I am indebted to Wikipedia for the following, and the Smithsonian Institute for the photo.
“Anemone coronaria (Poppy Anemone, Kalanit in Hebrew) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Anemone, native to the Mediterranean region. It is one of the most well known and beloved flowers in Israel. During the British Mandate of Palestine, British soldiers were nicknamed “Kalaniyot” for their red berets.”