Seed longevity - MSU

[ULF at pax.vaxtbio.uu.se]

In <1993Nov3.140700.1 at cc.uvcc.edu> harrisji at cc.uvcc.edu writes:

> Anyone have any information on the Beal seed longevity experiment? 
> Beal buried twenty jars of seeds on the campus of Michigan State
> University in 1879 to be unearthed at five year intervals over the
> next 100 years to see how long the seeds would remain viable.  In
> 1920 the interval was extended to every ten years.
> 
> In 1980 I saw an article in Newsweek or Time on the experiment.  A
> few of the seeds planted that year had germinated after 101 years
> in the ground.
> 
> I didn't see any notice of the results of the 1990 planting.  Does
> anyone know what grew?
> 
> Perhaps someone at Michigan State is up on this?  I'd appreciate
> any information, especially a literature citation.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jim


The latest literature I know about is a paper by Kivilaan, A. & 
Bandurski, R. S., in Am. J. Bot. (1981) 60:140-145, with the tile:
The one hundred year period for Dr. W. J. Beal's seed viability
experiment.
/ULF 

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