Post by: neilep on 28/11/2007 16:45:52
Here are some seeds !
Nice eh ?
seed.jpg (29.66 kB . 432x283 - viewed 13795 times)Look at them there...being all seed like and ovule yet so dormant looking too !
Recently, some
Actually, I think it was a Magnolia !....anyway....does this mean that for all that time the seed was alive.....?...does it mean that something inside the seed prevented it from decomposing ?......In a dormant seed....is there something going on ?...like a hibernation status for instance ?
Hugs et les shmishes
neil
xxxx
Post by: Karen W. on 29/11/2007 01:12:40
That is a good question.. I hope someone can anwser it!
Post by: Carol-A on 29/11/2007 09:58:37
Post by: neilep on 29/11/2007 14:24:07
I think it very much depends on what your definition of life is! Seeds that are dormant don't have any metabolic processes going on, but given the right circumstances they can germinate and clearly be alive.
THANK YOU CAROL A.
Yes, there is no metabolic process but there MUST be something being active that is rejuvenated fully under the right circumstances. Something must be " alive " to be able to induce growth !
Post by: neilep on 29/11/2007 14:25:19
It's dry , it has no moisture it cannot sprout without water I think most all life needs moisture or we revert back to the earth... but what preserves the cell inside the seed so that water brings on life...I don't know! It is amazing. I have a jar of corn kernals (seeds that belonged to my mom, my grandma, and they belonged to her Mom. Now I don't how much further back they go but the tradition was that they each planted a few seeds in there garden from these kernals. And carry the corn on. My grandma said it was healthy corn.. strong corn.. LOL She was serious! I have left them in the jar and never planted any of them as an adult. My mom did, then sealed it up! I should plant one or two and see what happens!
That is a good question.. I hope someone can anwser it!
THANK EWE KAREN.
yes, it is amazing isn't it........why not plant a seed or two and let us know what happens eh ?
Post by: Carol-A on 29/11/2007 17:20:30
Post by: JimBob on 29/11/2007 17:43:42
Post by: Carol-A on 29/11/2007 20:59:43
Post by: Andrew K Fletcher on 30/11/2007 08:39:31
In the 1970s, during excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel, two thousand year old Judean date palm seeds were recovered. The cache of seeds was contained in an ancient jar, in very dry conditions sheltered from the elements; this helped preserve the seeds. Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich confirmed the age of the seeds at 2000 ±50 years . After their discovery the seeds were held in storage for thirty years at Bar-Ilan University.
On 25 January 2005, (the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat), Dr. Elaine Solowey, a specialist in rare and medicinal plants at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, planted three of the seeds at Kibbutz Ketura in the Arabah desert of southern Israel.[1] One of the seeds sprouted six weeks later. As of 6 February 2006, there were five fronds.
The plant has been nicknamed "Methuselah" after the oldest person in the Bible. Methuselah is remarkable in having been the oldest tree seed successfully germinated, and also in being the only living representative of the Judean date palm, which was once a major food and export crop in ancient Judea.
Date palm trees are dioecious. If Methuselah is female, it may produce fruit by 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judean_date_palm
Post by: opus on 30/11/2007 19:41:44
Post by: Andrew K Fletcher on 30/11/2007 22:01:09
It is doubteful that the seed is alive during its storage and that the driving force that makes it live is a non living physical force using water to generate circulation, and the power source readily available is the energy from the sun and gravity
Post by: opus on 01/12/2007 17:36:56
Post by: Andrew K Fletcher on 04/12/2007 23:40:00
Post by: another_someone on 05/12/2007 02:23:54
2k years is a long time to remain dormant.
A long time is a relative concept - depends on how to consider normality.
I suppose the main criteria is that you cannot kill them merely by depriving them of sustenance, and thus they have no need of sustenance, and so are not living. In particular, they are not processing energy, and all life requires energy.
Post by: Andrew K Fletcher on 06/12/2007 09:18:35
My late grandfather was in the desert during the second world war, though doubt it was the second.
He told me about a journey he made with his company through hot dry lifeless desert up through a mountainous pass. All around him was hot sand and sizzling temperatures, mile after mile they drove and then it rained, and rained so they halted and rested. When they looked round in the morning they could see a carpet of colours all over the former lifeless desert.
I was fascinated by this story and saw a documentary about rain in the desert causing spontaneous blooms from dormant seeds. The lifecycle of which was astonishing from germination to self-seeding and the eventual death of the plants when the last fed drops of water had been wisped away under the relentless sun.
Post by: Monox D. I-Fly on 07/01/2019 03:35:58
My 8 year old daughter had a box of seeds sitting in her room for about 18 months. She dropped one of these into water, and got one of these! http://www.fischbar.de/triops/triops_1.jpgWait, what is that animal? It looks a bit like a trilobite.