That is neat! Since she says no one has done it with a 2000 year old seed, I guess that answers a question I've had.
In China a while back they did an autopsy on a 2000+ year old corpus. They found melon seeds in her stomach. I always wondered if someone tried to germinate them. :)

Wow! What an incredible story!

Did y'all pick up on that London Natural History Museum reference? I wonder what 500 year old seeds germinated, and whether or not the museum did anything to grow them out?

Reckon I'll have to make some inquiries.

Did y'all pick up on that London Natural History Museum reference? I wonder what 500 year old seeds germinated, and whether or not the museum did anything to grow them out?

Reckon I'll have to make some inquiries.

Yes, did pick up on that reference and I'll let YOU send an e-mail B, and then you can tell the rest of of us what germinated that was 500 years old.

For sure it wasn't tomato seeds, but then it could be a bean or squash seed or, for heavens sake here I am talking about veggies when it could just as well be some weed seeds from the herbarium collection. LOL

Carolyn

I'd thought of that, Carolyn. But even if it's a weed or flower or other non-vegetable plant, I still find the idea facinating that any seed 500 years old would germinate with just a water soak.

If, indeed, the reference is true. Maybe it didn't happen at all, and is just a horticultural myth. Or maybe it did happen, but the seeds weren't really that old (the world of archeology is full of improperly dated materials). Or maybe it actually did happen to seed that was half a thousand years old.

I've started the inquiry process, and will certainly keep the list updated with any developing info.