There is an unusual tree in the greenhouse of the Arava Institute of Environmental Sciences in Israel’s Kibbutz Ketura.

Standing three meters tall, the tree was planted by local biologists in 2010, but they could not determine its species because it never flowered. They speculated that it belonged to the genus Commiphora, possibly myrrh.

More surprisingly, the tree grew from a seed found by archaeologists in a natural cave in Lower Wadi el-Makkuk during excavations from 1986 to 1989. Carbon dating revealed that the seed was approximately 1,000 years old.

Meanwhile, scientists have unraveled the deeper mystery behind the behavior of leaf-cutter ants.

About 150 years ago, scientists first discovered that leaf-cutter ants cultivated gardens of fungi inside their nests, feeding the fungi bits of leaves and, in turn, consuming the tips of the fungal webs, CNN reports.

Dr. Ted R. Schultz, a research entomologist and curator of Hymenoptera at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., led a team of researchers to investigate the origin of the ant-fungi relationship. Their findings were published in the journal Science on 3 October.

The researchers used DNA from 475 species of fungi, including 288 species known to be cultivated by ants, and compared them to rare fungal fossils to determine the age of their genomes.

They found that the ancestors of modern ant-grown fungi began evolving 66 million years ago, according to CNN.

“Humans have been practicing agriculture for 12,000 years. Ants, for 66 million years,” Schultz said, CNN reports.