Wild Edible Plants of Israel and Palestine

Wild food plants in the region include winter greens such as mallow and purslane, herbs such as za'atar, shrubs such as caper and sumac, and coastal or desert plants such as saltbush. Historical references distinguish wild “field vegetables” from cultivated garden produce, while modern reporting describes household gathering, market sale, and enforcement against commercial harvesting.[2][3]

Their use is shaped by seasonality, culinary knowledge, conservation rules, and the need for reliable identification. Za'atar, akoub, and three-lobed sage have all been subject to protected-plant regulation in Israel.[4]

The gathering of wild plants for food in the land of Israel has roots stretching back to antiquity. Ancient Hebrew sources indicate that capers (Capparis spinosa) were collected from the wild and intensively cultivated as food in the Levant, with the plant also serving as a boundary marker or prickly fence during the Roman and Byzantine periods.[5] A 2026 study examines when and why this cultivation and intensive collection were discontinued. Its abstract states that wild caper is absent from traditional foodways in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Sinai, although a contemporary coastal-foraging report lists capers among plants gathered or used.[5][1]

Rabbinic literature preserves early evidence of how wild plants were categorized. Mishnah Oktzin 3:11 discusses “all kinds of wild vegetables” in the context of ritual impurity, naming truffles and mushrooms and recording differing rabbinic lists that include field-leeks, purslane, ornithogalum, cynara sycaria, and muscari comusum.[6] The passage addresses legal classification rather than gathering or preparation, but it shows that rabbinic law recognized a broad category of wild vegetables.

Historical accounts of Jerusalem's First Temple period record that the ordinary diet contained few vegetables, mainly wild garlics and wild onion, placed among everyday foods alongside bread, legumes, and fruit.[7] Biblical-period sources describe most vegetables as picked wild as needed and cooked for daily meals.[8] Wild melons and cucumbers, sesame gathered wild for oil or raw eating, and garlic and onions that grew wild all served as food; garlic and onions were cultivated in the land of Israel only in the postbiblical period.[8]

Sumac (Rhus coriaria) grew abundantly wild in Judea as a shrub or small tree, and some Oriental communities used its acrid reddish fruits as a spice; it was cultivated in mishnaic times, though in Judea, where it was plentiful, it was not particularly prized.[9] Two species of jujube also grew wild: Zizyphus spina-Christi, a tall prickly tree of hot regions, and Z. lotus, a prickly desert bush, whose fruits were tasty but not highly valued; the trees are widespread in the wadis of the Arabah and Jordan Valley.[10] The caper shrub, meanwhile, grows wild in rocky places and old stone walls throughout Israel — including at the Western Wall — and its edible flower buds were known in Aramaic as kafrisin, while its young fruit, called evyonah, was eaten pickled in salt or vinegar.[11] Rabbinic sources debated the caper's classification as a tree or vegetable and which of its parts were edible.[11]

A broader survey of field vegetables distinguishes them from cultivated garden produce, describing them as particularly abundant in winter, with some regarded as tasty and nutritious.[2] Mallow leaves, orach, and species used as maror were associated with indigent people, while in times of famine communities searched for wild vegetables such as rocket.[2] Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) was common in summer in gardens and fields and eaten raw as salad or cooked; garden cress grew wild by riverbanks, where its pungent leaves were seasoned with salt or vinegar.[2] The leaves and tubers of Arum palaestinum were also eaten after cooking to remove bitterness, and the leaves of wild Arum dioscoridis were consumed while its tubers served as animal fodder.[2]

Mallow (khubeza / chalamit)

Mallow is among the most widely documented wild edible plants in the region. Six species grow in Israel, with Malva nicaensis, M. silvestris, and M. parviflora among the most common, occurring in nearly every part of the country.[12] Bull mallow (Malva nicaeensis) sprouts with the first winter rains, beginning in October, and in Jerusalem can be found growing in sidewalks, retaining walls, and untended ground.[13] Its leaves, stems, fruits, and seeds are all edible raw; the leaves are mild, somewhat like spinach, and the small fruits are crunchy with a mildly radish-like flavor.[13] The plant is popularly called khubeiza — meaning “small loaf” — because its flat, round seeds resemble Arab bread.[12]

Mallow leaves grow broad and tender at the start of winter, suited to salads, and become larger through spring, when they can be stuffed.[14] Foraging guidance recommends removing the stems, washing the leaves, and picking only a few leaves from each plant rather than stripping it, so that the plant can continue to grow.[15] The leaves can be eaten fresh or used as a substitute for spinach or chard in dishes such as soup, rice, and patties.[15] Additional preparations described in Israeli sources include a mallow-and-onion pastry, chickpea soup, and green rice.[16]

A JNS opinion writer characterizes mallow as a subsistence food in times of scarcity, noting that not only the leaves but also the stems, used for a drink; the roots, used to thicken soups; and the wheel-shaped seeds, eaten by children, find culinary application.[17]

Za'atar

The Arabic term za'atar can refer to at least 20 wild herb species in the mint family, Lamiaceae, including herbs associated with thyme, marjoram, and oregano; its exact meaning varies across the Levant.[18] In the Israeli culinary context, za'atar is also identified with Syrian oregano, Origanum syriacum, a low perennial shrub native to the region and adapted to rocky soil, hot weather, and scarce water.[4] Another source links the plant with biblical eizov, while noting that biblical hyssop and the plant now called hyssop are not the same.[19]

As a spice blend — distinct from the plant itself — za'atar typically combines dried herbs, sumac, sesame, and salt, and is used with bread and olive oil, in manāqīsh, and to season other foods.[18] One kitchen description defines the blend as thyme, salt, sumac, and sesame seeds and places it among the dry spices historically found in Israeli home cooks' kitchens.[20] The dried spice is used on chicken and fish, while fresh za'atar leaves are prepared as a spread with garlic, walnuts, ground sumac, salt, olive oil, and lemon juice — pulsed briefly so the mixture stays grainy rather than smooth.[21]

Israel declared za'atar a protected natural asset in 1977, making picking, possession, and trade criminal offenses.[4] A later enforcement policy relaxed the absolute ban in practice for limited personal harvesting while the plant remained formally protected and picking remained prohibited; the Nature and Parks Authority described this as a monitored relaxation aimed at distinguishing household gathering from commercial harvesting.[4] Many modern spice blends therefore use oregano, marjoram, or thyme as substitutes for the protected plant.[19]

Akoub (Gundelia)

Akoub, identified botanically as Gundelia tournefortii, is a perennial thorny plant found in the Galilee, Golan Heights, Jordan Valley, and other open areas.[22] It is regarded as a traditional delicacy in Arab society and serves as food for pollinators and insects, contributing to local biodiversity.[22] Overharvesting and habitat damage have led to its classification as a protected species in Israel; picking it while young can impede its life cycle and reproduction.[22] Akoub was declared protected in 2005.[4]

Enforcement operations in 2026 in the Golan region resulted in the seizure of approximately 234 kilograms of akoub, including about 104 kilograms found with a trader and two women and approximately 130 kilograms linked to six administrative fines.[22] In a separate operation in the Menashe region, inspectors seized about 6 kilograms of akoub and 25 kilograms of hyssop, or za'atar.[22] An authority official noted that enforcement focuses on traders rather than on personal-use picking.[22]

Caper

The thorny caper-bush is the most common caper species in Israel, growing to about 1.5 meters and bearing rounded leaves and large white flowers with purple stamens.[23] Its unopened flower buds are pickled and eaten; young branches and leaves were pickled and eaten in ancient times, when they were known by their Aramaic name shuta.[23] The ripe berry is generally eaten pickled as well.[23]

Mallow's Relatives and Other Leafy Greens

Wild chicory, called ellet, is used in a salad made with a small onion, ground sumac, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.[24] Luf, a dark leafy plant, is cooked with olive oil and onion, but its potent toxin must be neutralized in the cooking process.[24] Rocket (Eruca sativa) grows wild in Israel and is also cultivated as a salad vegetable; its seeds can yield a kind of mustard.[25] Historical sources record beliefs that wayside-growing rocket benefited eyesight and possessed aphrodisiac properties.[25]

Coastal and Desert Plants

Along the northern coastal plain from Netanya to Haifa — a 60-kilometer stretch of fields, dunes, and riverbeds — sea rocket, ice plant, Mediterranean saltbush, sea fennel, capers, purslane, nettles, wild mustard, and nigella are among the plants gathered.[1] Preparations described include sea rocket pesto, crispy ice-plant stalks, fried or sautéed saltbush leaves, purslane chopped with nectarines, and wild mustard seeds made into wholegrain mustard.[1] Nigella, called ketzah in Hebrew, has seeds used on bourekas or challah.[1] Saltbush (maluach), a desert plant with edible leaves that excrete excess salt, appears on the coast at sites near ancient settlements such as Apollonia, Ashkelon, and Yavne Yam.[26]

Watercress, known in Hebrew as gargir nahalim — literally “grain of the river” — is native to northern Israel, particularly the Galilee region, and appears as an ingredient in Galilean cuisine.[27] Wild fennel, asparagus, and dark-green mallow leaves are also found along local footpaths in the Galilee, lending the region's traditional cuisine much of its character.[24]

Three-lobed sage (maramia) is named among wild plants with culinary and cultural significance in the region and, along with za'atar and akoub, is subject to protected-plant regulations.[4]

Foraging for wild greens in the land of Israel is documented across multiple communities and is often transmitted through family and communal knowledge. A winter foraging outing near Salame in the Western Galilee documented wild mint, chicory, and parsley growing along the banks of a seasonal river.[28] Zada Soueid gathered mallow for salads or sautéing and Egyptian campion (smamicha) for cooking with onions and salt, cautioning that the campion should not be eaten once its pink and purple flowers appear.[28] Wild garlic, endive, watercress, and thorny wild artichokes were also found in the area or at the nearby Arrabeh market.[28]

Soueid removes the stems from mallow leaves, chops and freezes them for later use, and cautions against pulling wild garlic up by its bulbs so that it can regrow.[28] Mallow, wild garlic, and endive can be chopped raw into a salad, or mallow and wild garlic can be sautéed with onions as an alternative to spinach or Swiss chard.[28] Forager Paul Nirens noted that his Druze, Israeli Arab, and Bedouin hosts expressed concern that younger people were becoming less familiar with the practice, suggesting that the knowledge is not being transmitted as reliably as in earlier generations.[28]

Soueid learned to gather winter greens after marrying into a Bedouin family and brought her daughter along to learn, illustrating the intergenerational character of the tradition.[28] In the lower Galilee, Nazera Madi was documented gathering mallows, wild mustard, beet greens, wild chicory, spinach, and milk thistle in a grove of ancient olive trees near Arrabe.[29] These plants are described as traditional staples of Arab cuisine; Madi also knew of nettles, chickweed, flowering garlic, and marigolds, and noted that her mother and grandmother had eaten even more kinds of wild herbs.[29]

Preparing wild greens is labor-intensive. Madi washed, peeled, chopped, fried, or simmered each plant after gathering.[29] Her f'tir pastries filled with wild beet greens required the greens to be finely chopped, kneaded by hand, simmered, drained, and squeezed before seasoning and wrapping in dough — a process she described as taking two days from gathering to finished pastry.[29] She also cooked wild chicory with onions and spices.[29]

Israel has a large and accessible collection of wild wheat, barley, oats, legumes, wild fruits, and wild plants in the onion genus Allium — including onions, garlic, leeks, and chives — representing an important genetic resource.[30] Food markets in the region reflect continuing demand for wild edibles: the Wadi Nisnas market in Haifa offers freshly picked greens and herbs associated with the Galilee, and seasonal markets in Nazareth carry mallow and za'atar among their Middle Eastern specialties.[3]

Mallow acquired particular historical significance during Israel's War of Independence, when the siege of Jerusalem cut off the city's food supplies. Jerusalem residents gathered wild mallow and made a filling soup from it as provisions dwindled.[13] The plant grows abundantly in Jerusalem's sidewalks, retaining walls, and untended ground, making it accessible even within the besieged city.[13]

One account records a neighbor introducing Bea Renov to wild-growing mallow during the siege and teaching her what could be prepared from it; Frieda Macarov later recalled that Renov's health improved on this foraged diet.[31] Other accounts describe residents making khubeza patties and sharing recipes discreetly, wary of revealing to their besiegers how scarce food had become.[14] Mallow is described as rich in iron, calcium, and vitamin C, and its soup recipe calls for mallow leaves, olive oil, onion, garlic, water, salt, pepper, and lemon.[13]

Many Palestinian residents of the region also continue to gather mallow leaves in season.[14] The siege experience has given mallow a lasting place in Israeli collective memory, and the plant's association with that period of hardship and resilience has made it a recurring subject in Israeli food writing and cultural commentary.[13][14]

Practical guidance on foraging in Israel emphasizes careful identification, sustainable harvesting, and respect for legal restrictions. Foragers are advised to identify plants with certainty before eating, wash leaves thoroughly, pick only a small proportion of any one plant so that it can continue to grow, and take no more than 10% of the amount present in any given area.[32] Forager Yatir Sade, working the northern coastal plain, described trimming only plant tips to leave roots intact and allow regrowth.[1]

Foragers are advised to avoid nature reserves and agricultural land and not to enter agricultural land without the landowner's permission.[32] KKL forests are identified as places where foraging is possible.[32] When the identity of a plant or the legality of picking it is uncertain, leaving the plant alone is recommended.[32]

Israel has extended formal legal protection to several of the most culturally significant wild food plants. Za'atar was declared a protected natural asset in 1977 and akoub in 2005, with picking, possession, and trade made criminal offenses for both.[4] A later enforcement policy relaxed the absolute ban in practice for limited personal harvesting of za'atar, akoub, and maramia while retaining their protected status and the formal prohibition on picking; the Nature and Parks Authority described the change as a monitored relaxation intended to distinguish household gathering from commercial trade.[4] Enforcement in 2026 included seizures of hundreds of kilograms of akoub in the Golan and Menashe regions, with an authority official clarifying that enforcement priorities target traders rather than individuals gathering for personal use.[22]

Wild edible plants occupy a layered role in the food culture of Israel and the surrounding region, connecting daily cooking to ancient practices and to the land itself. The Galilean landscape — described in the Jewish Review of Books as characterized by wheat and barley fields and by connections among Bedouin farmers, Druze villagers, and urban Muslim and Christian communities — has long been defined partly by the wild plants found along its footpaths.[24] Wild fennel, asparagus, chicory, and dark-green mallow leaves are named among the plants that give this regional cuisine much of its character.[24]

Za'atar functions simultaneously as a wild plant, a cultural symbol, and an everyday food herb; one source describes it as a low perennial shrub native to the region, while another situates it at the center of debates about ecological conservation and cultural identity.[4] Akoub is similarly significant: it is described as a traditional delicacy laborious to prepare and expensive to acquire, pointing to the prestige that scarcity and effort can confer on foraged foods.[4]

The continuity of this foraging culture across generations and communities reflects deep attachments to specific landscapes and plants. Whether in the preparations of Bedouin and Druze families in the Galilee, the memory of Jerusalem under siege, the ancient rabbinic catalogues of wild vegetables, or the recipes passed from grandmother to granddaughter, wild edible plants remain living markers of the region's human history and its people's relationship to the land.

Several aspects of wild-plant gathering in Israel involve genuine disputes of an ecological, legal, or political character. The protected status of za'atar and akoub is contested: the Nature and Parks Authority cited population growth, shrinking open space, and commercial harvesting as threats to these plants, while critics questioned whether the evidence of harm was sufficient to justify restrictions.[4] Some critics argued that the restrictions effectively criminalized traditional Palestinian gathering practices.[4]

Attorney Rabia Agbaria examined 61 judgments from 2004 to 2016 and found that all were rendered against Arabs; Nature and Parks Authority data also recorded 780 enforcement incidents related to za'atar between 2010 and 2016, all involving Arabs.[4] These figures and the competing interpretations surrounding them form part of an ongoing and politically contested debate. The Authority's stated position was that enforcement should distinguish between commercial harvesting and household use.[4]

The botanical identification of plants named in biblical and rabbinic texts also remains uncertain in several cases. The mallow entry in the Jewish Virtual Library links the mishnaic ḥelmit with mallow but cautions that identifying the biblical ḥallamut as mallow is uncertain and that other plants have been proposed.[12] The rocket entry records competing interpretations of the biblical orot — the Peshitta renders it as mallows, while a Talmudic reading identifies it with gargir, or garden rocket.[25] Similarly, while one source links za'atar to biblical eizov, another notes that biblical hyssop and the plant now called hyssop are not identical.[19]