The man in this 2-foot-tall, first-millennium B.C. Syrian relief is about to fertilize a female date palm by smearing pollen from a male date palm over its flowers. Our farmer hopes to create lots of little date palms, from which he will cull the female trees and cultivate them for their sweet fruit. Because date palm trees are dioecious (that is, either male or female), it is more efficient to pollinate female trees artificially than to rely on capricious natural agents like the wind or insects. The trees reach full productivity when they are 30 years old and only […]
