Israeli scientists say a sapling germinated earlier this year from a 2,000-year-old date palm seed is thriving.

“It’s 80 centimeters (three feet) high with nine leaves, and it looks great,” Sarah Sallon, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in Jerusalem, told National Geographic News.

Sallon says she wants to see if the ancient tree — nicknamed Methuselah — produces any unique medicinal properties no longer found in modern date palm varieties.

“Dates were famous in antiquity for medicinal value,” she told NGN, noting they were used for various diseases.

Given where most comments have focussed, lately — I thought you could use some dates. Har, har, har.



  1. D.C. Hammer says:

    Yeah, and that’d be just my luck, scoring one with a 2000-year-old.

  2. ranron says:

    So, if I’m reading this right, the scientists are taking a 2,000 year old seed and it is sprouting, or is the seed from a plant that dates from 2,000 years ago?

  3. Ryan Vande Water says:

    If they can do the same thing with Monica’s dress…. Bill Clinton is in BIG trouble.

    Or, we all are.

  4. Eideard says:

    ranron — 2,000 year old seed.

  5. RTaylor says:

    This is good. Dried dates are my favorite fruit.

  6. dfrag says:

    There’s a Tony Randall joke in here, just can’t put my finger on it.

  7. Pat says:

    dfrag

    But it’s an old joke


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