Yeruham Sternbergia Reserve

The story

The Yeruham Sternbergia Reserve extends over the Yeruham ridge in the Negev Highlands, southwest of the locality and west of road 204. It was declared a nature reserve in 2014, and its area is ten thousand three hundred and thirty-six dunams. Included in it are several stream channels, and in them thousands of flowers of the large sternbergia grow. The plants, which are geophytes, bloom on the rock slopes of the channels and at their foot, and make use of the rock pockets in which relatively much water gathers. The flowering is in the autumn: it begins in the north of the reserve in October and ends at the end of November in its eastern and southern parts. In the reserve are further steppe and desert species, and animals among them porcupines and rock hyraxes. Most of its area is included within a military firing zone.

• Desert
• Yeruham