Scientists discovered an ancient flower that is exquisitely preserved in amber, suggesting that this new species could be the early ancestors of daisies, tomatoes and mint, that thrived in the Caribbean some 45 million years ago.
During the mid-Tertiary period, this amber formed around 15 to 45 million years ago before the Americas was connected to the Panama land bridge. According to co-author of the study, director of the Chrysler Herbarium, Lena Stuwe of Rutgers University, based solely on this flower, the team was able to determine what group of plants thrived during the mid-Tertiary period in the Caribbean. Not just the species itself, but the large group of flowering plants of asterids that formed and evolved that time.
Asterids include flower, herb and vegetable families such as Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and the Solanaceae. Asteraceae include dandelions, asters and sunflowers and also daisies, and the Lamiaceae family involves peppermint, thyme, oregano and rosemary, where the Solanaceae include potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes and chili peppers.
This new flower belongs to the smaller family of the Loganiaceae, that involves subtropical and tropical plants from herbs, vines, shrubs and trees. The flowers can be described as covered in fine hairs with trumpet shaped petals that are measured not more than 10 millimeters long.
However, even if this only known specimen is not complete, it still included vital parts like corollas and stamens and a filament that is protruding from its mouth, that provides crucial information about the plant's classification, which is considered to be part of the Strychnos genus.
To date, the genus include 200 species where researchers now call this flower the Strychnos electri which would have been a vine that lived in a humid and tropical rainforest, according to co-author of the study, George Poinar Jr. of the Oregon State University.
Even if the flower has been in a remarkable state of preservation, scientists could still not tell the original color of the flowers, where Stuwe adds that most Strychnos species possess white or cream colored blooms. It is also unclear whether the flowers were pollinated.
Stuwe adds that there have been pollen grains that were detected outside the petals as if they were shed and spread out which is common for flowers when insects come to visit and pollinate them. Researchers believe that small bees could have been the pollinators as they are more commonly found in Dominican amber.
This new study is published in the journal Nature Plants.