Judean date palm

Common card · No. 247186

The Judean date palm is a date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) grown in the Southern Levant, in the historical region known as Judea, today part of the State of Israel and the West Bank. It is not clear whether there was ever a single distinct Judean cultivar, but dates grown in the region have had distinctive reputations for thousands of years, and the date palm was anciently regarded as a symbol of the region and its fertility. Cultivation of dates in the region almost disappeared after the 14th century AD from a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay but has been revived in modern times. In 2005, a team of Israeli scientists sprouted a preserved 2,000-year-old seed, the oldest seed germinated with human-assistance. The palm, a male, was named Methuselah (not to be confused with a bristlecone pine tree of the same name). Following this success, six further preserved seeds were sprouted.

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