World’s most ancient date seed — 2,000 years old — was discovered 40 years ago and planted in 2005

(The plant grown from the 200 year old date seed.)

An ancient date seed that is 2,000 years old has been successfully germinated, marking it the most ancient ever to have been grown into a plant.

The seeds had been recovered from Masada, the foreboding, cliff-side fortress where Jewish Zealots killed themselves to avoid capture by Roman invaders.

One was planted in January three years ago — the traditional Jewish New Year of Trees — and an analysis confirms that the resulting plant, nicknamed Methuselah, had indeed grown from the oldest seed ever germinated.

Today, in the journal Science, a dating study shows that the seed surpasses the prior record of 1,300 years for a lotus seed by seven centuries.

The date seed was discovered 40 years ago by Prof Yigal Yadin during the archaeological excavations of Masada, the palace built by King Herod on the shores of the Dead Sea.

The fortress was stormed by the Romans in 73 AD, after the inhabitants had committed suicide.
The seed was planted by Israeli scientists in January 19, 2005, and more than two years later, the resurrected Judean date palm tree had reached a height of nearly four feet.

Good condition

Coaxed to germination by plant specialist Elaine Solowey, Methuselah remains healthy, says the initiator and director of the project Dr Sarah Sallon, with only a few white spots on early leaves.

“It is the oldest seed ever to be grown,” she says, adding that it was the extremely dry and hot local conditions which probably kept the seed in good condition.