Judean date palm

It is sometimes claimed that date growing as a commercial fruit export stopped at the end of 70 AD, when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans.[10] However, study of contemporary sources indicates that the date industry continued in Judea throughout the Roman period and that, indeed, the Roman Imperial treasury collected a good deal of the profits.[11] Asaph Goor, in his 21-page article History of the Date through the Ages in the Holy Land, never mentions any such Roman devastation of the date palms, but rather cites numerous contemporary accounts attesting to the continuing extent of date cultivation through the Roman period. Goor only detects a decline in date cultivation through the period of Early Arab rule and especially during the Crusades, when he notes that the devastation of the region was particularly hard on the palm plantations. However, despite this, extensive cultivation persisted in Jericho and Zoara, until the agrarian economy collapsed during Mamluk rule around the 14th century, which he attributes to a change in the climate. Goor quotes several later, Ottoman-period travellers to the area as to the rarity of date palms, including Pierre Belon, who in 1553 scoffed at the idea that the region could have ever produced the bounty of dates reported in ancient sources.[8]

Climatological research has proven that immediately after 1000, the climate has become colder and more humid, reaching a peak around 1600, followed by a century of severe heat and drought, and then again by colder times with more rainfall.[12] A 1974 study blames the 15th-century disappearance of date palms from the Jericho-Ein Gedi region on human activity, but Goor raises the possibility that the climate change led to the springs in the area delivering less water, which harmed the water-intensive cultivation of date palms.[12]

Vespasian coin celebrating the victory over the rebels. The legend says: IVDEA CAPTA ("Judaea [has been] captured")

During 1963-1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel, revealed a cache of date palm seeds preserved in an ancient jar. They had experienced a very dry and sheltered environment for centuries. Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich confirmed the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. The seeds were held in storage for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.[13][14]

In 2005, Dr. Elaine Solowey from the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies managed to sprout several seeds, by pretreating them in a fertilizer and hormone-rich solution. Three of the seeds were subsequently planted at Ketura, Israel, in the Arabah in southern Israel.[13] Eight weeks later, one of the seeds had sprouted, and by June 2008, the tree had nearly a dozen fronds and was nearly 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) tall. By the summer of 2010, the sapling stood about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall.

The plant was nicknamed "Methuselah" after the longest-lived person listed in the Bible. Methuselah is remarkable in being the oldest known tree seed successfully germinated, and also in being the only living representative of the Judean date palm, a tree extinct for over 800 years, which was once a major food and export crop in ancient Judah.

In 2005, before knowing the gender of the palm tree, Dr. Solowey was hoping that it would turn out to be female, for which there was a 50% chance, because that would have allowed it to give fruit; on the contrary, "if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."[15]

Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and is male.[16]

As of 2012, there were tentative plans to crossbreed the palm with what was considered its closest extant relative, the Hayani date from Egypt, to generate fruit by 2022.[16]

By 2015 Methuselah had produced pollen that has been used successfully to pollinate female date palms.[17]

As of 2019, additional Judean date palm seeds have been grown. Thirty-two seeds from locations in the Dead Sea area were planted, and six saplings (Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah) have survived. As of February 2020, Adam was 1.5 meters high (1.6 yards). Both Adam and Jonah have produced flowers. Because several seedlings are female, it is hoped that it will be possible to pollinate one or more of the female Judean date palms with the pollen from Methuselah.[6]

When compared with three other cultivars of date palm, genetic tests showed the plant to be closely related to the old Egyptian variety Hayani, 19% of its DNA being different, and an Iraqi cultivar (16% different DNA).[18] They may have shared the same wild ancestor.

In addition to its honoured place in the history of Judea, the palm may contribute useful characteristics, such as environmental tolerance and disease resistance, to modern date cultivars.

Sarah Sallon, the head of the project, wants to see if the ancient tree has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties. "The Judean date was used for all kinds of things from fertility, to aphrodisiacs, against infections, against tumors," she said. "This is all part of the folk story."