Tree seeds wake up after 200 years

These seeds were brought by a Dutch merchant from South Africa to England in 1803, and found in a notebook at the National Archives.

The team at Kew said they were surprised by this success."They have been kept in quite unfavorable conditions," commented Matt Daws, a seed ecologist.

"They were on a boat for a year, at least for months, returning from the Cape, then being kept in the Tower of London for a few years; only in the last 10 years have they been preserved in the state. So I didn't expect any of them to germinate, ' said Matt Daws.

Three successful sprouting plants include a legume ( Liparia villosa) and two unidentified species, a protea and an acacia tree.

Liparia is particularly well developed with 16 of the 25 seeds sprouting. However, glue particles are less fortunate. "We only have 2 seeds, and one of them has been eaten inside by one , " Daws said.

Cape Cape is frequently burned, becoming a stimulus for germination. So scientists mimicked the effects of fire, by removing the hard shell of some particles, and blowing smoke through some other particles.

These are not the oldest seeds ever awakened. Four years ago scientists in the United States did germinate lotus seeds dating back 500 years; more recently, an Israeli group claimed to have planted a palm tree from a 2,000-year-old seed.

T. An