I was planning to skip the weekly leaf this week and next, as I am on vacation. However, I realised that there are two festivals occurring this weekend, both with some botanicalassociation.

On Sunday is the Jewish festival Shavuot (שבעות), known in English as Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. Shavuot is associated with the wheat harvest, as recounted in the Book of Ruth that is read on that day.

Today (Friday)is the Chinese festival Duan Wu Jie (端午節), the Dragon Boat Festival. Coming during what the Chinese consider to be a time of sickness, a number of medicinal plants are associated with the festival(see “Fantastic plants and where to find them during Dragon Boat Festival”, by Wang Quan; CGTN website https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d67444d3341444e/share_p.html).The plants mentioned in the article include Angelica, a plant that I have discussed before in Leaf 23.

Happy holidays and Good Health to all those celebrating!

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