Stories have
long been told about the sweet, delicious fruit of the Judean Date Palm Tree.
Blossoming in the hot sun of the Middle East, this fruit was well-known and
renowned in its day. This sweet, succulent fruit was said to be medicinal and
even a bit of an aphrodisiac. It was the staple of the local ancient economy to
the point that the ancients even engraved on the side of their coins. It was
even, according to some sources, capable of fighting age.
Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Is
your mouth just about watering?
Well, wipe your watery mouth and
heave a sigh. This tree, which once grew
thick in the Jordan River Valley, hasn’t been around for about 2000 years, a
victim of politics and fighting.
So, that’s one more of Mother
Nature’s wondrous treats that no one will ever taste again.
Right?
As it turns out, the most
amazing age defying trick the Judean Date Palm will ever perform, has turned
out to be on its very own species.
Check out this article, sent to me this week by a friend. (Thank you, Ms. Coggy!) In the mid-1960s, during
archeological expeditions in that part of the world, an ancient clay container
was dug up, and in the bottom of the vessel lay a collection of Date Palm
seeds, carefully laid there by some unknown ancient person many ages ago. That
person thought he was just storing a few seeds. He could have had no idea he
was storing a legacy.
In around 2005, a daring
scientist decided to try an experiment. She took some of those old seeds,
treated them, and planted three of them in the soil.
A few weeks later, there was a
sprout!
A tree, nicknamed Methuselah,
had sprouted from a 2000 year old seed, a symbol of hope for so many things.
Isn’t Mother Nature incredible?
On another note, here’s a
picture of some of our migrating friends heading for their winter home. Enjoy
your autumn!
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