Michael Zohary


Michael Zohary was a pioneering Israeli botanist.

Biography

Michael Schein was born into a Jewish family in Bóbrka, near Lviv. He immigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine in 1920. After working building roads, he attended the Teacher's Seminary in Jerusalem. He published the monumental Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East. He was responsible for introduction of the important principle of antiteleochory which adumbrated that seed germination of the desert plant is ensured by dispersal near the parent plant. His son, Daniel Zohary was also a highly published botanist specializing in prehistoric plant domestication.
In 1931, Alexander Eig founded the National Botanic Garden of Israel on Mount Scopus, together with Michael Zohary and Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan.
In 1952 he was appointed professor of botany at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Shortly before his death he published the comprehensive Plants of the Bible.

Awards