Plants

A long-lived tree (Ficus carica) prized for its sweet fruit and broad shade. To sit "under one's vine and fig tree" was the picture of peace…

A slow-growing, long-lived tree (Olea europaea) whose oil lit lamps, anointed kings, and fed households. Paul uses its grafting as a picture…

A climbing plant (Vitis vinifera) trained over stones or wooden frames. Its fruit became wine, raisins, and a recurring biblical figure for …

The staple grain of the Holy Land, sown in late autumn and reaped in early summer. A single grain falling into the ground becomes Jesus's im…

The seed of the black mustard plant (Brassica nigra), proverbially small but capable of growing into a shrub tall enough for birds to nest i…

A massive, fragrant evergreen (Cedrus libani) from the mountains north of Israel. Its timber built Solomon's temple and became the Bible's s…

A small bushy herb whose bundled stalks were used as a ritual sprinkler — from Passover doorposts to the foot of the cross.

The date palm — whose branches meant royal welcome and whose fruit fed the poor — stood at the centre of Palm Sunday.

The poor person's grain — cheaper and coarser than wheat, it fed landless workers and widows across the Bible world.

The thorny shrub of the curse — from Eden's punishment to the crown pressed on Jesus's head, thorns mark the presence of sin and suffering.

The jewel-seeded fruit of the Promised Land — carved 400 times on Temple columns and sewn onto the High Priest's robe.

The first tree to flower each year in Israel — and the source of a Hebrew wordplay linking Jeremiah's calling to God's watchful alertness.

The wide-branched fig relative that Zacchaeus climbed — a common tree of the poor, whose fruit had to be pierced before it could ripen.

The terraced hillside grapevine plot was Israel's greatest agricultural investment — and God's most persistent metaphor for his people.