Extinct palm tree grown from ancient jar of seeds.

A Judean Date Palm has successfully been regrown from a small stockpile of seeds thought to be around 2,000 years old.

The seeds were unearthed during excavations of Herod the Great’s palace in Israel in the early 1960’s.

For the next four decades, the ancient seeds were kept in a drawer at Tel Aviv’s Bar-Ilan University. But then, in 2005, botanical researcher Elaine Solowey decided to plant one and see what, if anything, would sprout.

“I assumed the food in the seed would be no good after all that time. How could it be?" said Solowey. She was soon proven wrong.

Amazingly, the multi-millennial seed did indeed sprout – producing a sapling no one had seen in centuries, becoming the oldest known tree seed to germinate.

Today, the living archeological treasure continues to grow and thrive; In 2011, it even produced its first flower – a heartening sign that the ancient survivor was eager to reproduce. It has been proposed that the tree be cross-bred with closely related palm types, but it would likely take years for it to begin producing any of its famed fruits. Meanwhile, Solowey is working to revive other age-old trees from their long dormancy.

While the seeds are the oldest known tree seed to germinate, they are by no means the oldest seeds to be regrown. Last year seeds of a small flower thought to date back at least 30,000 years were successfully regrown.

• Woolly mammoth cloning update.
• 30,0000 year old flower revived.