Michael Schein (later Zohary) was born into a Jewish family in Bóbrka, near Lviv (then Austria-Hungarian Empire). He immigrated to the British Mandate for Palestine in 1920.[3] After working building roads, he attended the Teacher's Seminary in Jerusalem. He published the monumental Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East. He was responsible for introduction of the important principle of antiteleochory which adumbrated that seed germination of the desert plant is ensured by dispersal near the parent plant. His son, Daniel Zohary (1926–2006) was also a highly published botanist specializing in prehistoric plant domestication. His grandson, Ehud Zohary (1958 -present) is a neurobiologist. All three generations were/are faculty members at the same institute.
As well as his interest in the plant geography and vegetation of Israel and Jordan, from 1950 to 1965 Zohary's research paid special attention to Turkey and Iran. He published The Plant Life of Israel in 1962 and a major article on the vegetation of Iran in the Israel Journal of Botany in 1964. His work on the Flora Palaestina resulted in the publication of the first two volumes, Pteridophyta (1966),[5] and Dialypetalae (1972), meanwhile his major two-volume work, Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East, appeared in 1973. Zohary's best known work, however, is A New Analytical Flora of Israel (1976, in Hebrew).[6]
Zohary officially retired in 1967, but as Professor Emeritus continued his research, his final book being Plants of the Bible (1982). He died on 15 April 1983 in Jerusalem.
The plants Anthemis zoharyanaEig (1938),[7]Bellevalia zoharyiFeinbrun (1939),[8] and Stachys zoharyanaEig (1948),[9] are all named after him.[6]
Zohary, Michael (1998). David Heller (ed.). A New Analytical Flora of Israel (in Hebrew) (2 ed.). Tel Aviv: Am Oved. OCLC916628298. (published posthumously)
"The Segetal Plants Communities of Palestine", in: Vegetatio 2 (1950), pp. 387–411
Flora Palaestina, I–II, Jerusalem 1966–1971
Plants of the Bible, Cambridge 1982
Domestication of Plants in the Old World (3rd edition), Oxford 2000
"The diffusion of South and East Asian and of African crops into the belt of Mediterranean agriculture", in: Plants for Food and Medicine (H.D.V. Prendergast, et al. editors), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1998, pp. 123–134
^Hebrew studies - Volumes 25-26 -1984 Page 230 "Professor Michael Zohary is professor emeritus of botany at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For half a century he has been studying the biblical flora and is regarded as the outstanding authority on the subject. His work has been published in several books and articles, earning him a number of distinguished awards. "
