Judean date palm trees are extinct, but amazingly, they were grown from a jar of seeds.

At one time, Judean date palm trees were a staple crop in the Mediterranean. The trees were widely cultivated in the Middle East, garnering mentions in the Bible.

The trees were grown throughout the Kingdom of Judea for thousands of years. They offered sweet fruit and shade from the sun, and were considered highly valuable in the Kingdom of Judea, which existed from about 3000 BC until the beginning of the Common Era. They were considered a symbol of good fortune-for example, King David named his daughter, Tamar, after the plant's Hebrew name.

However, the Roman Empire destroyed the date palms because they were such a powerful symbol. By around the year 500 AD, the plam was completely wiped out.

After this, knowledge of the trees was legend-not memory. Until now, that is.

In the early 1960s, archeologists excavating Herod the Great's place in Israel unearthed a stockpile of seeds that were buried in a clay jar for 2,000 years. The seeds were kept in a drawer at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University for four decades.

In 2005, botanical researcher Elaine Solowey thought she'd plant a seed, just out of curiosity.

"I assumed the food in the seed would be no good after all that time. How could it be?" said Solowey.

 The seed did sprout, even after 2000 years. The sapling it produced is the oldest known tree seed to germinate. The plant hadn't been seen in millennia.

Today, the tree continues to grow. In 2011, it even produced a flower. Some have proposed cross-breeding it with closely related types of palms, but it would take years to produce fruit. In the meantime, Solowey is attempting to revive other ancient trees.