RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Rachel Martin. Mix 2,000-year-old seeds with water, hormones and organic fertilizer, and what do you get? A variety of date palm tree that had been extinct for more than a century. Scientists in Israel now hope that Hannah, a new female plant, will flower and be pollinated by a male tree named Methuselah. He was grown from another ancient seed in 2008. That pairing could produce new fruit once sought after during the Roman Empire. Talk about a first date with a lot of pressure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.