HAIFA: When Sarah Sallon first thought of cultivating 2,000-year-old date palm seeds from a Roman-era fortress towering above the Dead Sea, she received a less than encouraging response. But Sallon's bet that the Dead Sea's unique, bone-dry environment could enable the seeds from the Masada fortress to flourish has been proven right. Before embarking on her date palm revival, Sallon had read about 500-year-old lotus flower seeds that had germinated. Undeterred after being called "mad" by botanical archaeologists at Bar Ilan, Sallon showed them evidence of ancient seeds being germinated elsewhere. Solowey recounted how Sallon sent her the ancient seeds from the fortress with the instruction to "try to sprout them."

Source: Manila Times October 04, 2021 14:37 UTC