Journal February 25, 2014 - Kalamata seed in vitro

The photo above shows the Kalamata olive seed I placed into culture on January 26, 2014.  In less than a month it has begun to grow, however, it looks nothing like any seedling I have ever seen.

It looks more like an ugly green slug with yellow eyes and green eyeballs than it does like an olive seedling.  Perhaps I got carried away with the hormones.  

Well, in any event, it is growing, and that is fine with me.  Four weeks is much better than waiting for a year and nothing happening.

The photo was sent to the Tissue Culture expert who has been giving me advice and she replied that it appears callus is forming on the tissue.

What is callus?  According to my book: "Callus is a mass of undifferentiated cells.  The callus mass can contain embryoids capable of developing into whole plants or it can contain shoot or root primordia. (the earliest developmental stage of an organ or cell)"

Who knows?  I may get more than one plant from this seed.  Only time will tell.....