Stefano Zerafa

Stefano Zerafa was born at Gharghur on 9 October, 1791. While pursuing his higher education, he lived at Bishop Street, Valletta, and later resided at Zurrieq with his sister. When he married, he settled in Valletta.
 
From 1815 lo 1856 he was Professor of Medicine, Physiology, Pathology and Natural History at the University of Malta. During these years he was also in charge of the Argotti Botanic Gardens at Floriana.
 
Professor Zerafa was an avid collector of Maltese plants, and is best known for his Thesaurus of Flora of the Maltese Islands Floree Melitensis Thesaurus, compiled between 1827 and 1831.
 
In his book he included for the first time, a plant indigenous to Malta, which he had found on the southern cliffs of the island and named it Centaurea Spathulata. Without offering Zerafa the courtesy of amendment in some detail of systematics, the Italian botanist Bertoloni renamed it C. Crassifolia in 1829. Now botanically classified as Paloeocyanus crassifolius, Zerafa's discovery has been chosen as the National Plant of Malta.
 
He also made suggestions on obtaining underground water in his Della possibilita di ottenere acque zampillanti Forando il Suolo del Gruppo di Malta (undated), prepared at the request of the Societa Economico Agraria.

Of interest is his treatise of 1833, on "La Tempesta dell'Anno 1343 ..." linked with the origin of Maqluba and St. Gregory's Votive Procession.
 
Zerafa died at Valletta on 25 March, 1871 and was buried at Zurrieq Parish Church.
 

Palaeocyanus crassifolius - Widnet Il-Bahar

"The genus Palaeocyanus, with its only species P. crassifolius, is endemic to the Maltese islands. It is of great scientific importance, as this species probably originated during the Tertiary period (66-1.6 million years ago), and is likely to be related to the ancestors of the genera Centaurea and Serratula. In 1827, Zerafa named the plant Centaurea spathulata; since this name had already been given to another species, the botanist Bertoloni renamed it C. crassifolia. The Czech botanist Dostal created the genus Palaeocyanus in 1975, to accommodate this unique species.
 
"This primitive species is a shrub; unlike species of the genus Centaurea, its leaves are spatula shaped, smooth and rather fleshy. Flowering occurs during May and July; stalks bear a single composite flower, made up of numerous purple tubular florets. The involucral bracts (the whorl of modified leaves at the base of the flower) are smooth, without spines or bristles. This species is scarce in the wild, found mainly on the cliffs in the South of Malta and Gozo.