A lucky discovery
A lost living fossil has been rediscovered in Madagascar, which can be a lost level of evolution chains of flowering plants.
In 1909 the only specimen of the Takhtajania mushroom tree was discovered in the northwest of the island, but efforts to find more trees of the same species were trivial. However, recently botanists have found a series of 50 units at the other end of the island.
The trees belong to the family Winteraceae. In this family are some of the primitive flowered trees. The plants of this family disappeared from the African continent about 24 million years ago.
Takhtajania grows up to 7 meters in length of mushrooms and its purpuas bloom every May. Mix of modern and primitive features. Primitive flower plants have many loose carpel. In modern plants, however, carpelos are united in a compound structure. Takhtajania can be one of the first primitive plants that form the compound of carpel mushrooms.
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