The evolution of flowers (2024)

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The evolution of flowers? ›

Flowers evolved around 130–180 million years ago. This chapter discusses the origins and radiations of the angiosperms and the flowers they produce, analysing both fossil and molecular phylogenetic data.

The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the common ancestor of all living gymnosperms before the end of the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. In the Cretaceous, angiosperms diversified explosively, becoming the dominant group of plants across the planet.

Most plants today have flowers. But when did flowers first evolve? Researchers have found an ancient plant in Liaoning, Archaefructus, that has very small, simple flowers and could be one of the first flowering plants. Archaefructus lived around 130 million years ago and probably grew in or near the water.

As flowers have evolved and diversity has increased, some general trends include a number of changes in flowers which attract specific pollinators: Reduction of the number of flower parts. Fusion of flower parts. Precision in design and number of flower parts.

Montsechia vidalii existed approximately 130 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period. It flourished in freshwater lakes and, side-by-side with dinosaurs, helped populate the landscape of Central Spain and the Pyrenees, near the border with France (PNAS, August 17, 2015).

Dr. Jürg Schönenberger, French evolutionary biologist and botanist Dr. Hervé Sauquet, and a team of scientists from the eFlower project indicate that the first-ever flower in the history of Earth, 140m years ago, looked like magnolia and was a bisexual.

The new reconstruction, though, strongly suggests that early flowers had their organs arranged not in a spiral, but in series of concentric circles or “whorls”, as in most modern plants. The early flower had more numerous whorls, however, suggesting flowers have become simpler over time.

The Middlemist's Red camellia is considered the rarest flower in the world. Only two known examples are believed to exist, one in New Zealand and another one in England.

Scientists Find Plant Pollination by Insects Occurred Long Before Flowers Evolved. Scientific evidence shows that almost all of the earliest angiosperms (flowering plants) were pollinated by insects.

A bud develops into a flower. So, it is the pre-stage of a flower.

Why have flowers evolved to look the way they do? ›

Flowers have been insect-pollinated for most of their evolutionary history, so interactions with insects shape how many flowers look and smell – and taste!

Liliaceae. Compositae.

Some seed plants evolved flowers for the production of seeds. Flowers contain both male and female reproductive organs, including an ovary where eggs form and seeds develop. Flowers also attract pollinators.

The agave americana plant is known as a century plant because it typically blooms once every 100 years at the end of its life cycle.

Silphium

With its many small, long, yellow petals, the silphium looks like the cousin of yellow daisies. However, the flower has not been seen by humans since it went extinct in the first century BC.

An early fossil of a flowering plant, Archaefructus liaoningensis from China, is dated about 125 million years old. Even earlier from China is the 125–130 million years old Archaefructus sinensis. In 2015 a plant (130 million-year-old Montsechia vidalii, discovered in Spain) was claimed to be 130 million years old.

Their research indicates that flowers evolved into their marvelous diversity in much the same way as eyes and limbs have: through the recycling of old genes for new jobs. Until recently, scientists were divided over how flowers were related to other plants. Thanks to studies on plant DNA, their kinship is clearer.

Land plants (embryophytes) evolved from freshwater multicellular algae, probably related to the extant charophyte groups Charales or Coleochaetales [1–4].