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  • From: "Dr. Chiranjit Parmar" <parmarch_mnd@dataone.in>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Tree from 2,000-year-old seed is doing well
  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:03:02 +0530

I was in Israel two years ago and had seen the site of that place (from a distance) from where the seeds were found. I also saw the plant obtained from the seed.

I am attaching two pictures. One is myself with Dr. Elois at her greenhouse where the seedling was obtained.

The scond picture is of the site (hilltop) from where the seeds were obtained.

Dr. Chiranjit Parmar
www.fruitipedia.com


----- Original Message ----- From: "Betty Mayfield" <bmayfield@opusnet.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2008 12:39 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Tree from 2,000-year-old seed is doing well


To the list,

There was a thread about this seed on this list
three years ago when it first sprouted. At that
time it said that the seeds recovered from the
Jewish fortress possibly had been tossed aside by
one of the defenders while eating lunch.

Betty Mayfield

At 06:12 AM 6/13/2008, you wrote:
Tree from 2,000-year-old seed is doing well

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer Thu Jun 12, 3:42 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Just over three years old and about four-feet tall,
Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely," Dr. Sarah Sallon said of the
date palm, whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at
Masada some 2,000 years ago.

The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada,
where rebelling Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman
attackers.

Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as
other seeds found with it that didn't sprout, indicate they were about
2,000 years old - the oldest seed known to have been sprouted and grown.

Sallon, director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center
at Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel, updates the saga of
Methuselah in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

One thing they don't know yet is whether it's a boy or girl. Date palms
differ by sex, but experts can't tell the difference until the tree is
six or seven years old, Sallon said.

She hopes there's a chance to use it to restore the extinct Judean date
palm, once prized not only for its fruit but also for medicinal uses.

The researchers have had a look at the plant's DNA, however, and found
it shares just over half its genes with modern date cultivars.

"Part of our project is to preserve ancient knowledge of how plants were
used," Sallon said in a telephone interview. "To domesticate them so we
have a ready source of raw material."

Her Middle Eastern Medicinal Plant Project is working to conserve and
reintroduce plants to the region where they once lived.

"Many species are endangered and becoming extinct. Raising the dead is
very difficult, so it's better to preserve them before they become
extinct," she said.

The oldest documented seed to be grown previously was a 1,300-year-old
lotus, Sallon said.
___

On the Net:
Science: http://www.sciencemag.org
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Attachment: DSCF1060.JPG
Description: JPEG image

Attachment: MassadaSmall.jpg
Description: JPEG image




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