My green Dinosaurs !!

[Halloamey]

Hello ! As some of you might know I like growing prehistoric plants, I thought I should share it with all of you. I recently bought two plant fossils, one belonging to an Agathis species from the Jurassic period (200-130 million years ago) and one of a Ginkgo adantoides from the late cretaceous period (roughly 65 million years old). Now both these fossil plants have very close extant relatives Wollemia nobilis and Ginkgo biloba. Attached are the pictures of my fossils and the their close living fossil relatives. The Wollemia fossil comes from the Talbragar fossil site in Australia, whereas the Ginkgo fossil comes from the Morton county fossil sites from North Dakota in the US.

The Agathis fossil with the Wollemia twig



details of the fossil



The Ginkgo adantoides fossil with the Ginkgo biloba leaves



Details on the Ginkgo leaves

[panam]

Pretty neat!

(My grandson thinks I'm a fossil, as well, but he always reminds me that I'm not as old as my mother. I hope my mother isn't looking at this!)

[Halloamey]

Here is my Wollemia growing happily for me. After this photo I have made several cuttings and planted them, from what I have read Wollemia cuttings strike roots easily, just hoping for the best.

[Jason-UK]

They look very interesting thanks for showing them

[Bill in NYC]

very enjoyable and interesting-----------thank you

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Very interesting and cool, Amey. Thanks man!

cheers,
BD

[angela]

Fascinating!! Great collection.

[panam]

Fascinating!! Great collection.

Angela - love your picture!!

[walingwaling]

wow, very interesting Amey!
how many millions of years you gotta wait for flowers? lol

[Halloamey]

Thank you everyone for looking.

Ron, the beauty of these plants is that they don't flower at all LOL ! They are Gymnosperms, they bear naked seeds, no flowers but male and female cones. If all goes well the plant can produce male cones in 3 to 4 years and female cones by 5-10 years. The tree planted by Sir. David Attenborough at Kew gardens in 2005 is producing cones now.

wow, very interesting Amey!
how many millions of years you gotta wait for flowers? lol