Walk around our Wildscape, and you'll spot "volunteer" sunflower plants popping up here and there. Volunteer? Hardly! They've been planted by our industrious, neighborhood squirrels! The eastern fox squirrels, to be precise. Last year, we had corn coming up, too!
Squirrels have been at this for a long, long time. Year around, they stash seeds away for anticipated meals in the future. Trouble is, they forget sometimes where they've squirreled them away (pardon the cliche, please...couldn't resist). As a result, we have wonderful trees and forests across our lands, no doubt thanks to our squirrel farmers.
Now scientists say they've grown plants from fruit stored away by squirrels eons ago! Today, the
New York Times reported, "
Researchers grow plants from 32,000-year-old cells."
Gotta love those squirrels!