New flower from 100 million years ago brings fresh holiday beauty to 2020

New flower from 100 million years ago brings fresh holiday beauty to 2020

Valviloculus pleristaminis. Credit: Oregon State University

Researchers at Oregon State University have identified a spectacular new genus and flower species from the mid-Cretaceous Period, a male specimen whose sunbeam-like reach to the sky was frozen in time by Burmese amber.

“This isn’t quite a Christmas flower, but it’s a beauty, especially given that it was part of a forest that existed 100 million years ago,” said George Poinar Jr., professor emeritus at OSU College of Science.

Findings are published in Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

“The male flower is small, about 2 millimeters wide, but has about 50 stamens arranged spirally, with anthers pointing towards the sky,” said Poinar, an international expert in the use of amber-preserved plant life forms and flowers. animals to learn more. about the biology and ecology of the distant past.

A stamen consists of an anther – the pollen-producing head – and a filament, the stem that connects the anther to the flower.

“Despite being so small, the details are still astonishing,” said Poinar. “Our specimen was probably part of a cluster on the plant that contained many similar flowers, some possibly female.”

The new find has an egg-shaped, hollow flower head – the part of the flower from which the stamens emerge; an outer layer consisting of six petal-like components known as tepals; and bicameral anthers, with pollen sacs that split open via laterally hinged flaps.

New flower from 100 million years ago brings fresh holiday beauty to 2020

Valviloculus pleristaminis. Credit: Oregon State University

Poinar and employees at OSU and the United States Department of Agriculture named the new flower Valviloculus pleristaminis. Valva is the Latin term for the leaf on a folding door, loculus means compartment, plerus refers to many, and staminis reflects the flower’s dozen of male sex organs.

Encapsulated in amber on the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, the flower rafted on a continental plate some 4,000 miles across the ocean from Australia to Southeast Asia, Poinar said.

Geologists have debated just as this stretch of land – known as the West Burma Block – was breaking away from Gondwana. Some believe it was 200 million years ago; others claim it was more than 500 million years ago.

Numerous angiosperm flowers have been discovered in Burmese amber, most of which have been described by Poinar and an Oregon State colleague, Kenton Chambers, who also collaborated on this study.

Angiosperms are vascular plants with stems, roots and leaves, with eggs being fertilized and developing inside the flower.

Because angiosperms did not evolve and diversify until about 100 million years ago, the West Burma block could not have broken off from Gondwana sooner, Poinar said, which is much later than data suggested by geologists.


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Provided by Oregon State University

Quote: New Flower from 100 Million Years Ago Brings Fresh Holiday Beauty to 2020 (2020, December 22) Retrieved December 22, 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-12-million-years-fresh-holiday-beauty. html

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