This is actually huge. It informs
us that we need to scour natural seed preservation traps for a wide range of
extinct plants of serious interest.
Obviously our best such environment is the desert.
It is now certain that we will recover the Judaic date palm after an
absence of almost two thousand years. It
was a staple then and will return quickly to that status. Hybridization will allow rapid dissemination.
This also promises to be a huge crop for global distribution and should
proliferate throughout the Middle East which seriously needs convenient tree
cover to increase humidity and enhance the environment.
The extinct tree which has resurrected from ancient
seeds
For thousands of
years, the date palm was a staple crop in the Kingdom of Judea, as it was a
source of food, shelter and shade. Thick forests of the palms towering up
to 80 feet and spreading for 7 miles covered the Jordan River valley from the
Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south.
So valued was the tree
that it became a recognized as a symbol of good fortune in Judea. It is
chronicled in the Bible, Quran and ancient literature for its diverse powers,
from an aphrodisiac to a contraceptive, and as a cure for a wide range of
diseases including cancer, malaria and toothache.
However, its value was
also the source of its demise and eventual extinction. The tree so
defined the local economy that it became a prime resource for the invading
Roman army to destroy. Once the Roman Empire took control of the kingdom
in 70 AD, the date palms were destroyed in an attempt to cripple the Jewish economy.
They eventually succeeded and by 500 AD the once plentiful palm had completely
disappeared, driven to extinction for the sake of conquest.
But all was not lost,
because in 1963, the late archeologist Yigael Yadin began excavating Masada, a
mountaintop fortress built over 2,000 years ago on the shore of the Dead Sea
where King Herod built a spectacular palace. Masada was the last stand of a
small band of Jewish rebels who held out against three Roman legions for
several years before committing mass suicide in A.D. 73.
Buried beneath the
rubble, Yadin unearthed a small stockpile of seeds stowed in a clay jar dating
back 2,000 years. For the next four decades, the ancient seeds were kept in a
drawer at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University. But then, in 2005, botanical researcher
Elaine Solowey decided to plant one and see what, if anything, would sprout.
"I assumed the
food in the seed would be no good after all that time. How could it be?"
said Solowey. She was soon proven wrong. After eight weeks, a small green shoot
emerged from one seed, producing a sapling no one had seen in centuries and
becoming the oldest known tree seed to germinate. The plant was nicknamed
"Methuselah," after the longest-lived person in the Bible.
The first leaves were
plagued with white spots, which the researchers put down to insufficient
nutrients and it was thought that the plant would never survive. But as time
progressed, the leaves began to look healthier.
In 2011, the plant
produced its first flowers and today, the living archaeological treasure
continues to grow and thrive. Researchers have now turned her attention
to whether the ancient tree had any unique medicinal properties no longer found
in today’s palm varieties.
"Dates were
famous in antiquity for medicinal value," said Solowey. "They were
widely used for different kinds of diseases—cancers, TB [tuberculosis]—all
kinds of problems."
Solowey has nurtured
more than 100 rare or near-extinct species back to life as part of a 10-year
project to study plants and herbs used as ancient cures. She has grown plants
and herbs used in Tibetan, Chinese and biblical medicine, as well as
traditional folk remedies from other cultures to see whether their
effectiveness can be scientifically proved. In experiments praised by the Dalai
Lama, for example, Borick Center Director Sarah Sallon has shown that ancient
Tibetan cures for cardiovascular disease really do work.
The Methuselah plant
may be crossbred with its closest living relative, the Hiyani date from Egypt,
to generate fruit by 2022.
1 comment:
Why cross breed it? Plant other seeds a keep it "pure"!
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