Garden Links for 20 February 2012
We read the botanical web so you don’t have to. In this edition: plants, old plants, and really old plants.
- Wikipedia: Judean Date Palm
Seeds of a 2,000-year-old, extinct date palm are discovered in Israel, sit in university storage for 40 years, then finally planted. One grows! - NY Times: New Life, From an Arctic Flower That Died 32,000 Years Ago
Or: 2,000 years? That’s nothing. Try 32,000! “Living plants have been generated from the fruit of a little arctic flower, the narrow-leafed campion, that died 32,000 years ago.” - Extraordinary 298-Million-Year-Old Forest Discovered Under Chinese Coal Mine
Or: 32,000 years? Hah! How about 298 million years? “During the Permian, which extends from 299 to 251 million years ago, there weren’t conifers or flowers. Plants reproduced like ferns, using spores, and the modern continents were still joined in a single mass of land called Pangaea.” - All the Time in the World
“What a charred ancient tree can teach us about impermanence, deep time, and our place in the universe.” A bittersweet tale of The Senator, a tree that fell after 3,500 years.
Seen any good botanical links lately? Please share!
See Also
Two Links Closer in the Chain of Dendrobium Ifs
That layer of yellow blobs are all clusters of tiny, growing Dendrobium embryos. Sexy goop, eh?
Pollination By Post
Back in May, my friend Zach sent me some pollen from one of his Phalaenopsis orchids in the mail.
I Think I Impregnated My Dendrobium
Try, try again.
