Seed Sprouts After 2,000 Years

The ancient Judaean date palms, prized for their beauty, shade, and medicinal properties, were destroyed by the crusaders during the Middle Ages. But now, “Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old,” reports The New York Times. “The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada,” the cliff fortress conquered by the Romans in 73 C.E. An expert on arid agriculture, Dr. Elaine Solowey, who germinated the seed, notes that it will take years before the young plant produces any fruit, and that only if it is female. “If it’s a male,” she says, “it will just be a curiosity.”