Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Silene Stenophylla

Time Traveler...


Ed Yong tells us in his Discover Magazine Not Exactly Rocket Science blog post that the seeds of this flowering plant have "been buried to a depth of 38 metres, and frozen for around 31,800 years" in Russian permafrost.  Reports on the methods by which which this plant was revived from its thirty millennia of slumber are recounted in many media outlets.

What amazes me is how something so hardy could also be so delicate and beautiful. 

Photo credit: Russian Academy of Sciences

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