BIOL 2004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Peduncle (Botany), Gynoecium, Magnoliids
Document Summary
Example: the longevity of seeds: a seed of canna compacta was germinated following extraction from inside a radio-carbondated 600 years old ceremonial rattle made of a walnut (juglans australis) shell. Even greater longevity has been reported in a seed of the indian or sacred lotus nelumbo nucifera from an ancient lake bed in. This seed has been germinated and subsequently radiocarbon-dated by shen-miller and colleagues in california in the 1990s as being 1,288 +/- An interesting story relates to seeds of the legume albizzia julibrissin on a pressed herbarium specimen collected from china in 1793 and deposited in the british museum. This specimen was "watered" while a fire was being extinguished in 1940 and several seeds (at least 147 years old) germinated: oldest viable seed. The oldest seed that has grown into a viable plant was a judean date palm seed about 2000 ya. From israel, was germinated in 2005: second-oldest viable seed.
