Pages

Mar 9, 2013

The world’s oldest known flowering plant

In early 1990’s it was reported that scientists at Yale University had identified the world's oldest known flowering plant. Called the Koonwarra plant, it was an herb about an inch (2.5 centimeters) tall. Its tiny flower was probably greenish or beige. The plant lived 120 million years ago and is known only through fossils found in the Koonwama area of southeastern Australia. It is believed that almost all of today's flowering plants are descendants of the Koonwarra plant. (Grolier Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia)