An amazing story ... A team of scientists in Russia have grown this plant from tissue that lwas buried in frozen arctic tundra some 32 thousand years ago.
The flower is a narrow-leafed campion that's reminiscent of the modern variety Silene stenophylla. It was found in ancient squirrel burrows on the lower Kolyma River in Siberia by a team led by scientists Svetlana Yashina and David Gilichinsky of the Russuan Academy of Sciences. Their report was published Feb 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
The team tried and failed to germinate seeds found at the site, so they then took cells from frozen fruit in the burrows and propagated them to produce the plants with flowers.
You can read further details about the study in an article that appeared in the New York Times here.
This was really amazing story. Is it true that this plant tissue can grow thousand and thousand of years ago.
Posted by: plumbing | February 25, 2012 at 06:09 AM
So amazing, isn't it?
Now why won't my lettuce seeds last at least 5 years?
Posted by: Martha | February 23, 2012 at 08:13 PM