A rare flower finally finds its moment in the sun, nearly 100 million years after it has grown.
Researchers at Oregon State University have identified a new species of angiosperm, or flowering plant, from the Cretaceous Age preserved in a piece of amber found in Myanmar today.
Named Valviloculus pleristaminis, it belongs to the laurel family and is related to the black-eyed sassafras found in Australia.
Myanmar and Australia are divided by more than 4,000 miles of ocean but, at the time this flower was surrounded in rosin, they were part of a vast region called Gondwanaland.
The discovery of V. pleristaminis reveals the continental plate on which it was separated from Gondwanaland much later than before.
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Researchers at OSU have discovered Valviloculus pleristaminis, a new species and genus, that was captured in amber 100 million years ago. The tiny male flower has a dozen stamens arranged in a spiral with pollen-forming heads pointing to the sky.
‘This is not a Christmas flower but it is a beauty, especially since it was part of a forest that existed almost 100 million years ago,’ said George Poinar Jr., a paleontologist with the Department of Integrated Biology OSU.
‘The male flower is tiny, about 2 millimeters across, but has about 50 stamens arranged like a spiral, with anthers pointing to the sky.’
The stamen is the part of the male flower that produces pollen, and the anther is the head that produces the pollen of the stamen.
‘Despite being so small, the detail remains intriguing,’ said Poinar, author of a report on the findings of the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute in Texas.
The flower was in bloom on the ancient Gondwanaland supercontinent and was enclosed in amber, Poinar theorizes, before hitting a trip on a continental plate called the West Burma Block as it slowly moved 4,000 miles away
OSU paleontologist George Poinar Jr. maintains a piece of amber. The work of the world-renowned expert in the analysis of plants and animals found in the prehistoric material inspired Michael Crichton to write Jurassic Park.
He and his colleagues at OSU and the Department of Agriculture named the flower – which is both a species and a new species – Valviloculus pleristaminis.
Valva is the Latin term for the foliage on a folded doorway, loculus means ‘portion’, ‘plerus’ refers to ‘many,’ and staminis denotes dozens of male sex organs.
The sample may have been part of a cluster on a plant with similar flowers, Poinar said, ‘some possibly female.’
As well as its beauty, the fossil flower is famous for its journey: It bloomed on the old Gondwanaland plateau and was enclosed in amber before hitting a trip on a large plate- known as the Block of West Burma.
That plate moved slowly from Australia to southeast Asia, a journey of 4,000 miles.
Debate is ongoing about when the West Burma Bloc broke off from Gondwanaland, which entered Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian peninsula.
Some geologists have dated back 500 million years ago, while others claim it was closer to 200 million years ago.
However, according to Poinar, angiosperms only multiplied about 100 million years ago.
That means the West Burma Bloc could not have been broken off before then, he said, ‘which is far beyond the proposed dates. ‘
Poinar is world-renowned for the analysis of plants and animals found in amber – his work inspired Michael Crichton to write Jurassic Park.
In 2013, Poinar discovered an amber piece with the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction in a flowering plant, a collection of 18 small Cretaceous Period flowers.
The freezing point in time consists of microscopic tubes growing out of pollen grains and entering the stigma, part of the female reproductive system of the flower.