Flowers have been blooming on Earth for 123 million years

BBC News

23-05-2025

The first flowers must have grown on Earth 123 million years ago according to scientists.Researchers from two universities in Germany, Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) and the University of Bonn, used pollen to find out when the very first flowering plants appeared.Pollen is very important because it can tell us a lot about the history of life on Earth.The scientists used pollen from the earliest flowering plants in old layers of mud and sand in Portugal, which they've dated further back that was believed until now.
How do you date pollen?
Before this study, scientists thought a certain group of flowering plants called eudicots first showed up about 121 million years ago. Experts explained how this newly-dated pollen, along with pieces of plants, were washed by river water into an ancient ocean, which over time got buried in rock, mud and dirt, before being dug up and studied millions of years later.Their research was published in the scientific journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Why is this discovery important?
When flower plants first began to grow is important because they make up most of the plants we see around us today - like flowers, fruit trees, and many of the crops humans and animals eat.How the flowering plants developed, and from which other older plants, remains a mystery.But when flowering plants first appeared, they changed the variety of living things on Earth a lot - helping to created new homes and food for lots of different insects and animals.Prof. Dr. Ulrich Heimhofer of the LUH Institute of Earth System Sciences says "The emergence of flowering plants altered the biological diversity considerably."So knowing exactly when these plants first showed up helps experts learn how life on Earth changed over time.