A new study showed the largest flower trapped in amber

A study published this Thursday by the journal Nature spread the images of the largest flower preserved in amber found so far. It is a copy of 28 millimeters in diameterwhat it is almost three times the size of specimens identified in the past.

“Here we present an exceptionally large inclusion of the Baltic amber from the late Eocene28 millimeters in diameter, triple that of most floral inclusions”, summarized the authors of the paper.

Amber is a substance that allows for careful preservation of fossil bird parts, even for millions of years. However, finding flower inclusions is not that common; much less, of this size.

This fossilized flower had been first identified in 1872 What Symplocos kowalewskii but recently Eva-Maria Sadowski -from the Natural History Museum of berlin– and his colleague Christa-Charlotte Hofmann -from the Institute of Paleontology of the University of vienna– resumed their analysis with the support of more modern technologies.

This allowed the spread of clearer images in which the flower can be seen in its entirety, with its five petals. Also, the study includes more detailed figures of its filaments.

The specimen dates from late Eoceneso it would have an age of between 38 and 33.9 million years.

This flower fossil described more than 150 years ago, encased in amber from the Baltic forests of northern Europe, comes from an ancient flowering evergreen plant originally called Stewartia kowalewskii. However, the fossil had never been comprehensively evaluated.

only from 1–3% of all inclusions in late Eocene Baltic amber are of botanical originadds the study.

This is the first record of Symplocaceae from Baltic amber and supports the affinities of its flora with the evergreen broadleaf and mixed mesophytic forests of present-day East and Southeast Asia.

In this new investigation, the scientists extracted pollen of the anthers of the floral inclusion and their examination suggested that the flower is closely related to the Asian species of symplocos.

That is why a new combination and classification for the flower was proposed, which has now been changed to “Symplocos kowaleskii”.

“The morphology of the flower and pollen of the amber inclusion is sufficiently indicative to justify its assignment to the Symplocos subgenus with the new combination Symplocos kowalewskii,” the scientists wrote in the paper, although they remarked that “future studies are needed to clearly document comprehensive Symplocaceae pollen to elucidate the various affinities of S. kowalewskii with extinct and modern lineages of the family”.

The rare size of this specimen -most do not exceed 10 millimeters in diameter- is due to a large effusion of resin that would have covered the flower, according to the investigation. Thanks to that, it was achieved that organisms did not grow in the flower or cause damage to it.

(With information from EFE)

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