Viburnum tinus, Laurustinus,
Hebrew: מורן החורש,Tidhar, תדהר, Arabic: Murran

Scientific name:		Viburnum tinus L.
Common name:		Laurustinus
Hebrew name:		מורן החורש
Arabic name:		Murran
Plant Family:		Caprifoliaceae, יערתיים

Location: Lower Galilee, Manof (מנוף)

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Life form:		Tree, phanerophyte shrub
Stems:		180-360 cm high; spread 60- 120 cm, reddish brown stems
Leaves:		Opposte, entire, smooth
Flowers:		White
Fruits / Pods:		Blue-black fruit
Flowering Period:		March, April
Habitat:		Mediterranean maquis and forest
Distribution:		Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands
Chorotype:		Mediterranean
Summer shedding:		Perennating

Location: Lower Galilee, Manof (מנוף) Derivation of the botanical name: Viburnum, Arrow-wood, Latin name of one species of this genus; wayfaring tree. tinus, tenth born. Laurustinus, Laurus refers to the leaf having the appearance of bay laurel; tinus means "tenth born" inferring "late arrival," an ancient name for an uncertain plant named in old literature, which may well have been Laurustinus named for blooming so late in the year. The Hebrew name: מורן, moran The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy. Ötzi the Iceman, found in the Alps in 1991, had a leather and hazelwood quiver, containing two finished arrows, dressed with feathers to cause spin, and 12 unfinished arrows, all made from viburnum and dogwood. Virgil (70 BCE – 19 BCE), a classical Roman poet, speaks of " inter viburna cupressi; ...the cypresses amidst the viburna; the image suggests tall trees amidst underwood. James Montgomery (1771-1854), a British editor and poet: The Laurustinus Fair tree of winter! fresh and flowering, When all around is dead and dry; Whose ruby buds, though storms are louring, Spread their white blossoms to the sky. Green are thy leaves, more purely green Through every changing period seen; And when the gaudy months are past, Thy loveliest season is the last. Be thou an emblem - thus unfolding The history of that maiden's mind, Whose eye, these humble lines beholding, In them her future lot may find: Through life's mutations may she be A modest evergreen like thee; Though bless'd in youth, in age more bless'd, Still be her latest days the best. Robert Browning (1812 – 1889), a British poet and playwright knew the Viburnum: This, that was a book in its time, Printed on paper & bound in leather Last month in the white of a matin-prime Just when the birds sang all together. Into the garden I brought it to read, And under the arbute & laurustine Read it, so help me grace in my need, From title-page to closing line. H.B.Tristram (1822 - 1906), The Land of Israel, a journal of Travels in Palestine (1865): "I never saw such a mass of perfumed blossom. ...a kind of guelder-rose (Viburnum tinus); a sort of sweet-scented evergreen, like the laurustinus." The Israeli botanist Michael Zohary (1898 - 1983), Plants of the Bible, says that only Viburnum tinus has the slightest support to represent the Hebrew tidhar in the 2 Isaiah passages. 'Tidhar is a symbol of revival... The reliable Aramaic translation of the Targum Yonathan, which renders tidhar as mornian, which is cognate with the Arabic murran - the only Arabic name for Viburnum tinus'. Bible resources: Isaiah 41:19 I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, אתן במדבר ארז שטה והדס ועץ שמן אשים בערבה ברוש תדהר ותאשור יחדו Isaiah 60:13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place for my feet. כבוד הלבנון אליך יבוא ברוש תדהר ותאשור יחדו לפאר מקום מקדשי ומקום רגלי אכבד