03/02/2026
Wow!
The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds. Scientists discovered a seed cache of a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River. Radiocarbon dating confirmed the age of the seeds.
The seeds, which evolved over millennia to become the modern day plant S. stenophylla, were unearthed from 124 feet (38 metres) below the permafrost, surrounded by layers that included mammoth, bison, and woolly rhinoceros bones.
The researchers placed the seeds in vials and successfully germinated the seeds. The plants grew, flowered, and, after a year, created seeds of their own.