4 ms·

Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm

37 points by myth_drannon 7y ago

ars 7y ago
I really want to eat the fruit of one of these. I hope they breed them with each other (is that the term for a fruit?) plant the children, repeat a few times until they have enough for regular people to try one.
- war1025 7y ago
  Most fruit is grown from grafts off the same original plant to maintain the taste. I imagine that is probably the most reliable way to propagate these, assuming they can get cuttings to root, which I'd think they could. I'm sure they will cross-breed them with each other though, at least at some point.
  - progre 7y ago
    You'd still need a female tree to get any fruits though, right?
  - fortran77 7y ago
    If they can get the cuttings to root that would work, but grafting them to other root stock could be problematic depending on what they use: https://www.ou.org/torah/files/grafting-and-interspecies-trees.pdf https://www.ou.org/torah/files/grafting-and-interspecies-tre... AFAIK, Date Palms are usually not grafted.
  - vikramkr 7y ago
    I believe Date palms are cultivated from offshoots generally, not cuttings or grafting (no branches etc to graft on, palms don't really work to graft onto). And as a quick point of clarification, grafting has nothing to do with rooting cuttings, the wording kind of linked those together. Tissue culture might work as a method of asexual propogation as well.
- dsshanley 7y ago
  I heard more details on the story on NPR (https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2020/02/06/803186316/dates-like-jesus-ate-scientists-revive-ancient-trees-from-2-000-year-old-seeds https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2020/02/06/803186316/da...). They originally germinated the one seed, but it's male and has no female counterpart to create fruit. So, they successfully germinated more from another collection, and it turned out they were female. They had no idea what they would get, and as the paper outlines, they don't know why some, but not all, germinated. Seriously amazing when you think that this biological reproduction function works after having been dormant for so many years.
byteCoder 7y ago
You can actually see the date palm that was studied at the Arava Institute located in Kibbutz Ketura in Southern Israel, just north of Eilat. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/judean-date-palm-methuselah https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/judean-date-palm-methuse...
flatfilefan 7y ago
It took me quite some time to parse that title. I was wondering whether it’s about some self-dating subculture or something. Self-dating not in historical chronology sense.
leptoniscool 7y ago
Along with the Judean Date palm(2000 years old), there's also the sacred lotus from China (1300 years old) and an arctic flower from Siberia (32000 years old!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed
lkrubner 7y ago
Off topic: I just learned that the Hebrew word for honey was also used as their word for syrup. Before refrigerators existed fruit went bad quickly, unless something was done with it. Grapes were turned into wine but other fruit was simmered down to a thick syrup. When the Bible says the Jews arrived in Israel and it was the land of milk and honey, they actually meant date honey. That is, date syrup. That is, there were a lot of dates.

37 points by myth_drannon 7y ago

ars 7y ago

I really want to eat the fruit of one of these. I hope they breed them with each other (is that the term for a fruit?) plant the children, repeat a few times until they have enough for regular people to try one.

war1025 7y ago
Most fruit is grown from grafts off the same original plant to maintain the taste. I imagine that is probably the most reliable way to propagate these, assuming they can get cuttings to root, which I'd think they could. I'm sure they will cross-breed them with each other though, at least at some point.
- progre 7y ago
  You'd still need a female tree to get any fruits though, right?
- fortran77 7y ago
  If they can get the cuttings to root that would work, but grafting them to other root stock could be problematic depending on what they use: https://www.ou.org/torah/files/grafting-and-interspecies-trees.pdf https://www.ou.org/torah/files/grafting-and-interspecies-tre... AFAIK, Date Palms are usually not grafted.
- vikramkr 7y ago
  I believe Date palms are cultivated from offshoots generally, not cuttings or grafting (no branches etc to graft on, palms don't really work to graft onto). And as a quick point of clarification, grafting has nothing to do with rooting cuttings, the wording kind of linked those together. Tissue culture might work as a method of asexual propogation as well.
dsshanley 7y ago
I heard more details on the story on NPR (https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2020/02/06/803186316/dates-like-jesus-ate-scientists-revive-ancient-trees-from-2-000-year-old-seeds https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2020/02/06/803186316/da...). They originally germinated the one seed, but it's male and has no female counterpart to create fruit. So, they successfully germinated more from another collection, and it turned out they were female. They had no idea what they would get, and as the paper outlines, they don't know why some, but not all, germinated. Seriously amazing when you think that this biological reproduction function works after having been dormant for so many years.

byteCoder 7y ago

You can actually see the date palm that was studied at the Arava Institute located in Kibbutz Ketura in Southern Israel, just north of Eilat. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/judean-date-palm-methuselah https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/judean-date-palm-methuse...

flatfilefan 7y ago

It took me quite some time to parse that title. I was wondering whether it’s about some self-dating subculture or something. Self-dating not in historical chronology sense.

leptoniscool 7y ago

Along with the Judean Date palm(2000 years old), there's also the sacred lotus from China (1300 years old) and an arctic flower from Siberia (32000 years old!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed

lkrubner 7y ago

Off topic: I just learned that the Hebrew word for honey was also used as their word for syrup. Before refrigerators existed fruit went bad quickly, unless something was done with it. Grapes were turned into wine but other fruit was simmered down to a thick syrup. When the Bible says the Jews arrived in Israel and it was the land of milk and honey, they actually meant date honey. That is, date syrup. That is, there were a lot of dates.