Evidence for Longevity of Seeds

Abstract

EVIDENCE for the longevity of seeds is strongest where there is documentary evidence, as with Albizzia julibrissin collected in 1793 and germinated on a herbarium sheet soaked in the British Museum air raid fire of 1940, or the seed of Nelumbium sp. collected in 1705 and then kept in the Harts Sloane collection at the British Museum until 1942¹. Evidence of age is weaker when it comes from association with archaeological or geological material, for the absolute age of the culture or geological event may be uncertain and the seeds sometimes are not of the same age as the deposit in which they are found. Thus viable seeds of Nelumbium nucifera were recovered from a drained lake at Pulantien, Southern Manchuria, from beneath some feet of loessic silt that were said to indicate an age of many thousands of years^2–7, whereas radiocarbon dating of the seeds gave an age not certainly separable from modern, and the alternative view could be held that the silts were recently redistributed by flood^8,10.