Back in 1879 , plant scientist William J. Beal began one of the cosmos ’s old science experiments , bury 20 glass pint bottle filled with 50 seeds in Baroness Dudevant . One hundred and forty - four years afterwards , scientists at the same university have continued his workplace , resurrecting those seeds and finding among them a hybrid plant , likely not meant to be a part of the experiment .
Beal was interested in helping farmers by seeing how long weeds remained workable . see no way to speed this process up , he decided he would place 50 seed in 20 deoxyephedrine bottles from 23 different green goddess mintage , and then immerse them with their mouths pointing downwards so that water did n’t collect inside . He would then dig up the seeds every five long time , and germinate them to see if they were still practicable .
This continue every five years until 1920 , when it was determined that it should be slowed down to every 10 years , and then 20 long time in 1980 . In 2021 ( having been foreclose from doing so the previous class due to thepandemic ) , the fourteenth bottle of seeds was dug up from its mysterious , unrevealed location , to see if they would still maturate .
While the overall subject has found that most species of works lost seed viability within the first 60 years of the experimentation , the team found that a high percentage of the plant of theVerbascumgenus were still able to grow .
“ The biggest surprise to me is that the seed germinated again , ” Frank Telewski , professor emeritus , flora biologist , and Beal team drawing card , say in astatement . “ It ’s amazing that something so previous can still develop . ”
The team has since sequence the DNA of the seeds ( not defective for a 144 - year - old experiment ) that grew for the first time , and identified the plant type . The team had suspected that a crossbreed had been included in the experimentation by mistake , and after sequencing they found that their hunch was right .
“ The molecular genetics work substantiate the phenotype we saw , which is that the plants wereVerbascum blattaria , or moth mullein , and one hybrid ofVerbascum blattariaandVerbascum thapsus , or vulgar mullein , ” Grace Fleming , assistant prof of plant life biota at Michigan State University , added . “ Beal submit that he let in onlyVerbascum thapsusseeds , so some intermixture - up must have occur while the bottles were being train . "
At the bit , the experiment is set to end in 2100 , but this may have to be extended by making the interval between germination longer if the seeds continue to show that they are viable .
“ In the 140 - plus years since the experiment ’s beginning , the interrogative sentence of seeded player bank length of service has gain new relevance , including for uncommon species preservation and ecosystem restoration ; for example , prairie planting on former farmland , ” Lars Brudvig , professor of plant biology at the University , added .
“ Our findings help to inform which plant coinage , likeVerbascum , might be problematical weeds for a regaining project like this , and which other species may not , depending on how long a field was farm before being restitute . ”
The study is published in theAmerican Journal of Botany .
