Every now and then we come across an interesting article on one of our favourite passions – plants!
Botanists in the US believe that after studying over 1,000 fossils of the Montsechia Vidalii species, an ancient plant that was once abundant in Spanish freshwater lakes could be the world’s oldest flower.
Despite its weed-like appearance, the plant actually bore fruit containing a single seed – the only characteristic needed to define an angiosperm, or flowering plant.
Although the discovery of the fossils in limestone deposits was made over a century ago, it’s only now that scientists have been able to carry out the extensive analysis which dates the plant between 125 and 130 million years old. Experts believe that it may even be older than the Archaefructus, a similar aquatic plant that was proposed to be the earliest known flower after it was discovered in China.
At over 125 million years old, the Montsechia would have lived during the early Cretaceous period, a time when dinosaurs such as the brachiosaurus and iguanodon walked the Earth!
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