Talk:Oldest viable seed

Silene stenophylla not from germinated seeds

The 31,000-year-old tissue from Silene stenophylla was not produced from germinated seeds, but from placenta tissue which is outside of the seed. Although the cells were viable, they would not technically qualify as seed tissue. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.183.64.58 (talk) 17:15, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

You are correct and I see it has taken over two years to fix this error after it was pointed out. Hardyplants (talk) 03:04, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

I fixed this without seeing the comment, just working from sources. By the way, the search term used as a title, "Oldest viable seed" and the likes are informal references in the press for the sake of sensation, rather than a technical term. Therefore the term wikt:seed must be taken in its generic meaning as something from which a plant can grow. Loew Galitz (talk) 18:33, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Asada Magnolia sp. seed

David Attenborough's The Private Life of Plants (1995) mentions a seed of Magnolia kobus found at Asada, a Bronze Age site in Japan. The seed was estimated to be 2000 years old and germinated into a mature plant, which flowered. The documentary notes that the flowers differed from modern M. kobus flowers in having 7 or 8 petals instead of 6. Explanations ranged from genetic mutations accumulated as a consequence of the seed's long dormancy, to the seed coming from an otherwise extinct cultivar (or even species) of magnolia.

Surely this should warrant a mention? Bit odd that there are few, if any, references to this find independent of the documentary. -Corsican Warrah (talk to me) 14:09, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

Actually Magnolia kobus has a couple of refs to about this find (in 1982). However the dating mentioned is of the tomb, but not of the seed itself. And I am not sure it was called "oldest viable seed" in the sources. And there is no secondary confirmation, only a hearsay from a "Hiroshi Utsunomiya of Yamaguchi University " (and the search for this name gives several more google hits, but probably they are not independent sources). And what is more important, I dont see any scientific publication, unlike the cases in our article. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary sources, not just media blurbs. Loew Galitz (talk) 03:30, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

I see. I added the citation that the seed was discovered in 1982 in the M. kobus article after I raised the issue about the lack of coverage of the Asada seed in this talk page. We will never know how long the magnolia seed had actually been there.

Perhaps add to the "Anecdotal" section? Corsican Warrah (talk to me) 10:22, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

IMO WP:UNDUE. Random newspaper reporters are not experts in biology. I guess it was either a quickly faded fake news or the researcher quickly caught up with a mistake and quietly shut up. Loew Galitz (talk) 17:15, 26 June 2022 (UTC)