Scientists Grow Ice Age Flower From 31,800-Year-Old Seed

Posted on February 22, 2012

Russian scientists have grown a Silene stenophylla plant from a 31,800-year-old seed. The frozen fruit seeds were found in the burrows of Ice Age squirrels, where they had been stored over 30,000 years ago. Discovery reports that this ancient plant regeneration easily beats the previous record which was set by growing plants from 2,000-year-old date palm seeds.

Here is raw footage of scientists from the Institute of Cell Biophysics and the Silene stenophylla plants they grew from ancient seeds. Take a look:

The research was published here in PNAS.

PLANTS