248: date palm dates back 2000 years

Thanks to RTBH reader Stacey for sending in today’s story, from South African news site IOL. According to the article linked above, Israeli scientists have managed to grow a sapling from a 2000-year-old Judean date palm seed found at the ancient fortress Masada (a winter palace built by King Herod near the Dead Sea in the 1st Century BC). The scientists were able to carbon date fragments of the seed after it had germinated, and this confirmed the seed’s age – and that it shares about half its genetic make-up with modern date seeds. Previous attempts to grow from the seeds had failed. Apparently, the ‘Methuselah’ tree, as it’s now known, was reputed to yield cures for all kinds of ailments in ancient times, so if the new sapling proves to be female there could be much demand for its fruit - and its seed… Hopefully, it won’t be so long until the next tree is grown.