EXCEPTIONAL SEED LONGEVITY AND ROBUST GROWTH - ANCIENT SACRED LOTUS FROM CHINA

A 1,288 +/- 271-yr-old (1,350 +/- 220 yr BP, radiocarbon age) seed of Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) from an ancient lake bed at Pu lantien, Liaoning Province, China, has been germinated and subsequentl y radiocarbon dated. This is the oldest demonstrably viable and direct ly dated seed ever reported, the preserved relict of one of the early crops of lotus cultivated by Buddhists at Pulantien after introduction of the religion into the region prior to 372 A.D. A small portion of the dry pericarp of a second lotus fruit from the same locale has been dated as being 332 +/- 135-yr-old (270 +/- 60 yr BP, radiocarbon age) by accelerator mass spectroscopy at the Lawrence Livermore National L aboratory. This polycentenarian seed not only germinated but is still growing (since March, 1994). Of six old lotus fruits tested, two-third s germinated, almost all in fewer than 4 d, as rapidly as fruits harve sted from the progeny of Pulantien Sacred Lotus plants (under cultivat ion by the National Park Service in Washington, DC), and more rapidly than fresh fruits of Yellow Lotus [N. lutea (Willd.) Pers.]. Growth of the old lotus is robust: rhizome formation and leaf emergence at rhiz ome nodes are more rapid than those of the Pulantien progeny, although the leaf width is smaller. Activity of the protein-repair enzyme L-is oaspartyl methyltransferase in the old lotus seed is persistent during germination and is as robust as that in the progeny, and the degree o f aspartyl racemization in proteins of the two groups of plants is min imal and essentially identical. The six dated ancient Sacred Lotus fru its range in age from 95 to 1,288 yr (with a mean age of 595 +/- 380 y r), evidently reflecting their production, deposition, and preservatio n at varying times during the intervening millennium.