Today we examine two related species from the Bible. The first is the white poplar (Populus alba), a tall tree with white bark (hence its Hebrew name) and leaves that are silvery on the underside. The white poplar belongs to the willow family (Salicaceae). Its distribution area extends over central, southern and eastern Europe, western Siberia, western Asia and northern Africa, i.e. Aram-Naharaim (modern Syria, but also Turkey).

Another species identified as hawthorn is the medicinal hawthorn (Styrax officinalis). The low, branched tree, whose leaves have a white underside, blooms profusely towards summer with white flowers that hang like grapes at the ends of the branches. The flowers and their scent are reminiscent of citrus fruits and attract bees. The real storax tree is a deciduous, broadly upright shrub or small tree up to seven meters high with thin and initially felty, star-haired branches. The Bible tells us that Jacob was exploited for twenty years by Laban, the Aramaean. Laban and Livne come from the same Hebrew root word lavan – white.

The tree produces a sticky, drop-shaped...

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