Tuesday 27 April 2010

Phoenix flowers

In South Korea, a lotus has been grown from a 760 year old seed. It had been found with nine others when excavating the ruins of a castle in South Gyeongsang. Scientists planted them all and three have grown into healthy plants - albeit ones afraid to go out in the dark and with a liking for Cliff Richard. It's not the first time plants have been successfully grown from ancient seeds. Lotuses have been grown from older seeds before, plants grew from 500 year old seeds in the bombed wreckage of the Natural History Museum during WWII, and a few years ago Israeli scientists grew a date palm from a 2000 year old seed.

So - I have been given some inspiration. For the next few weeks, I will be sitting on my dinosaur egg while at work. When (or - I suppose - if) it hatches, I will convert the basement into a Dinosaur Park and become terribly rich. Maybe I should do the conversion before it hatches so I don't have to put up with Kenny (or Hilda if it's a girl) trampling all over my stuff upstairs while I work on it. Anyway - print out this page for free entry in the first week of opening. You deserve it. Oh - and bring some cycad leaves.

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