Judean date palm

The Judean date palm is a date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) grown in Judea. It is not clear whether there was ever a single distinct Judean cultivar, but dates grown in the region have had distinctive reputations for thousands of years, and the date palm was anciently regarded as a symbol of the region and its fertility. Cultivation of dates in the region almost disappeared after the fourteenth century CE from a combination of climate change and infrastructure decay but has been revived in modern times.

In 2005, a preserved 2000-year-old seed sprouted. It is the oldest verified human-assisted germination of a seed (the claim in 2012 of a 32,000-year-old arctic flower involved fruit tissue rather than a seed). The palm, named Methuselah (not to be confused with a bristlecone pine tree of the same name), was about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in)) tall in June 2008. As of November 2011^[update], it is reported at 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) high, having been transplanted from pot to earth. By May 2015, the palm was 3.0 metres (9.8 ft) tall and was producing pollen.

Fruit of the date palm was considered a staple food in the Judaean Desert, as it was a source of food and its tree of shelter and shade for thousands of years, and became a recognized symbol of the Kingdom of Judah. It grew around the Dead Sea in the south, to the Sea of Galilee and the Hula Valley regions in the north. The tree and its fruit caused Jericho to become a major population center and are praised in the Hebrew Bible possibly several times indirectly, such as in Psalms, 92, "The righteous himself will blossom forth as a palm tree does", and date clusters (Hebrew: תַּלְתַּלִּים‎‎‎) are mentioned in Song of Songs 5:11.

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