Jun

14

2008
 
 

Tree of life



Oldest plant seed germinates, but is it a boy or a girl?

Oldest date aroundThere’s great news this week in Science for anyone interested in seed banks: a date palm Phoenix dactylifera seed unearthed during archaeological investigations of Herod’s Masada fortress has been successfully germinated. The seeds were discovered under a pile of rubble in the 1960s, and were stored at room temperature for the following four decades. But in 2005, Sarah Sallon, a plant biologist based at the Hadassah Medical Organization, Israel, and curious colleagues popped three of the ancient pips into plant pots. Eight weeks later one of the seeds had sprouted, and having survived re-potting it currently stands some four feet in height. Sallon hopes it’s a female (she won’t know for a couple of years), as that raises the possibility of resurrecting this long gone cultivar: if it was fit for a king, it will probably be worth the effort. Radiocarbon studies have demonstrated this to be the oldest seed ever deliberately germinated, as long as the dates haven’t been muddled up, so to speak. Source: Sallon S, Solowey E, Cohen Y, Korchinsky R, Egli M, Woodhatch I, Simchoni O & Kislev M (2008) Germination, genetics and growth of an ancient date seed. Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1153600

Image: © Guy Eisner

Filed Under Endangered species, Restoration, Tools and technology | 

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