930. Few plants in the Holy Land have seeds smaller than the mustard seed. As Jesus points out in His parable in Matthew 13, mustard often grows as large as a tree, reaching a height of about fifteen feet, with a stalk as thick as a man's arm. Mustard was widely cultivated in the Middle East for the flavor of its seed.
931. References to the grapevine abound in Scripture. It is a plant so widely cultivated in the Holy Land that it was known to all. The grapevine is one of the very first plants mentioned in the Bible (one of Noah's first jobs after the flood was to plant a vineyard) and its image appears some two hundred times in the Old and New Testaments. The grape has been cultivated for so long that its origin is shrouded in mystery.
932. The date palm was a sign of majesty and fruitfulness to people of the Holy Land. The huge leaves were symbols of triumph and were often carried in ceremonies, but they were also used for roofing, fencing, and the making of mats, baskets, and dishes. Rope was made from the fibrous material in the crown of the trees. The trunk was used for timber, and the date fruit was food for animals as well as people. It is said that the date palm has more uses than the years has days.
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933. The shrub commonly known as "crown of thorns," grown in many European and American gardens, could not possibly be the one mentioned in the Bible. This plant is native to the island of Madagascar and it was unknown in the Holy Land in Jesus' time. Many scholars now believe that the crown was made from a straggly shrub often called the Jerusalem thorn. It grows abundantly around Jerusalem, and its twigs are flexible enough to be woven.
