The prehistory of Magnolias
The earliest flowering plant likely looked like a magnolia.
The earliest flowering plant likely looked like a magnolia[1].
These magnolias and their close ancestors were first around in the Cretaceous period[2] and relied on insect-based pollination before specialised pollinators[3] had evolved.
As a result, the flowers are so thick because they used to be pollinated by insects which are heavier than bees, such as “dumb”, flightless beetles[4].
https://theconversation.com/revealed-the-first-ever-flower-140m-years-ago-looked-like-a-magnolia-81861. ↩︎
142 to 65 million years ago. ↩︎
Such as bees, butterflies and moths. ↩︎
https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/garden-scoop/2018-05-05-magnolias-and-pollination. ↩︎
