{"id":6355,"date":"2023-05-30T14:30:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T21:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=6355"},"modified":"2024-02-09T11:12:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T19:12:58","slug":"the-miracle-seed","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/the-miracle-seed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miracle Seed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Martin Lemelman is the author\/illustrator of \u201cThe Miracle Seed\u201d and uses a style similar to comic books to tell his story.\u00a0 The Judean date palm, a cultivar of Phoenix dactylifera<\/em>, was an important tree for its sweet fruit, medicinal properties, and cultural significance to the Jewish people.\u00a0 Following the bloody put-down of Jewish revolt between 66-74 CE, many of the groves were destroyed by the Romans.\u00a0 In the centuries that followed, a combination of factors led to the tree\u2019s extinction.<\/p>\n

In 1963, archaeological excavations in last, first-century Jewish holdout at Masada found a jar with six seeds of the Judean date palms.\u00a0 \u201cThe Miracle Seed\u201d tells the story of the two women scientists who very carefully coaxed some of these seeds to germinate 2,000 years after they were harvested.<\/p>\n

The first planting was on Tu B\u2019Shvat, the Jewish New Year of Trees in 2005.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until six years later that one successful seedling was large enough to flower, revealing it was a male plant of this dioecious species.\u00a0 In the meantime, a few other seeds were found at other archaeological sites.<\/p>\n

From these seeds, the first female Judea date palm flowered in 2020.\u00a0 Later that year, with pollen from the original plant (appropriately named \u201cMethuselah\u201d), the first fruit in two millennia was harvested and an extinct plant was brought back to life!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excerpted from Brian Thompson’s article in the Summer 2023 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Lemelman is the author\/illustrator of \u201cThe Miracle Seed\u201d and uses a style similar to comic books to tell his story.\u00a0 The Judean date palm, a cultivar of Phoenix dactylifera, was an important tree for its sweet fruit, medicinal properties, and cultural significance to the Jewish people.\u00a0 Following the bloody put-down of Jewish revolt between 66-74 CE, many of the groves were destroyed by the Romans.\u00a0 In the centuries that followed, a combination of factors led to the tree\u2019s extinction….<\/p>\n

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