Bible-themed Arboretum

The Bible and its stories are deeply embedded in Western Culture. So much so, in fact, that many of our plants were named for Bible stories or with Bible stories in mind. One arboretum in Texas is using the Bible as a starting point to teach about the plants around us and the Bible stories they may relate to.

There are six shrubs and trees known as "crucifixion thorn" in North America. None could have actually been the thorns used to crown the crucified Christ, according to David Oberpriller, who guides a Plants of the Bible tour at Boyce Thompson Arboretum.
"We don't know what plant it actually was, but none of these plants are found in the Middle East, so there's no way it could be them," he says. "But someone saw it and thought 'That looks like it could be it,' so that's what it's called."
Common knowledge of biblical plants is full of such conjecture, says Oberpriller, a retired Boeing engineer from Mesa who started leading the tour five years ago. Some plants - olives, dates and pomegranates - mentioned in the Bible are easy to identify, he says, while others ("thorny plant") are impossible.
"With a lot of Bible plants we don't know what they were," he said. "Translators weren't botanists. It didn't matter from a doctrinal standpoint if it was this species or that species."

If you are down that way, it could be an interesting way to connect what we'll be learning next year in Luke to the plants and animals around you.