Frozen Plant Resurrected

A team of Russian biophysicists has successfully grown ancient plants from tissue material that stayed frozen in the Siberian region for about 30,000 years.

This is the oldest plant material to have been brought to life so far.

According to a report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists extracted the so-called "placental tissue" from immature seeds and put it in a special nutrient solution, which imitated a growing plant.

After a while, the tissue in petri dishes germinated into mature seeds, which have been planted in soil and grew into fully-blossoming plants.

The scientists found only subtle differences in the shape of petals and the sex of flowers between the "resurrected" plants and the modern-day Silene stenophylla, which still grows in the Siberian tundra.

The research team suggested that tissue cells were a perfect material for their experiments because they contain high amounts of sugar, which helped the plants to survive in a hibernated state for so long.

Image and Article can be found HERE!