Light and Scanning Electron Microscopic Analysis of Silene stenophylla Seeds Excavated from Pleistocene-Age (Kolyma)

We studied the morphology of ancient seeds of the Silene species (Caryophyllaceae) excavated from feeding chambers of ancient ground squirrels (Geomys, subgenus Urocitellus) burrows buried in the Late Pleistocene Age permafrost deposits of Kolyma lowland (Siberia). The ancient seeds were compared to seeds of extant species of S. alba, S. chlorantha, S. nutans and S. stenophylla plants presently growing in the same and neighboring regions. Using Light (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), the ancient seeds were identified to be of Silene stenophylla (Ledeb.)

Grape (Vitis vinifera) seeds from Antiquity and the Middle Ages Excavated in Hungary - LM and SEM analysis

Grape (Vitis vinifera) seed remains were excavated at Roman and Medieval archeological sites in Hungary and analyzed by LM (Light Microscopy) and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy). Excavation sites included Budapest (Aquincum; 2nd - 4th CENT. A.D. Hungary) and Keszthely (Fenékpuszta) of the Roman Age (5th CENT. A.D., Hungary); and Gyır (Ece; 11-12th CENT. A.D., Hungary), Debrecen (13th CENT. A.D., Hungary) and the King’s Palace of Árpád Dinasty at the Castle of Buda, Budapest (15th CENT. A.D., Hungary) of the Middle Ages. Ancient seeds were compared to thirty current grape varieties of similar seed size, shape, and morphology (Szabó et al. 2007´). The modern grape variety Vitis vinifera cv. ‘kék bakator’ (syn.:‘Blue Bocca d’Oro’; ‘aranybogyó’) was found most similar in seed morphology to one of the ancient samples (15th CENT. Debrecen, Hungary) which indicates the antiquity of this cultivar