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recounts how one scientist discovered what might be the first
flowering plant fossil, Archaefructus liaoningensis.
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follows the search for evidence of the first flowering plants in
the Hengdaun Mountains of China, the most biodiverse temperate
forest in the world.
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states that mosses, pines, and firs dominated the Earth for 300
million years until flowering plants became prevalent—but
how and when this change occurred is a mystery.
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shows how flowering plants flower and produce the new
generation—fruit—that allows the plant to adapt to a
different set of circumstances.
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shows how Archaefructus' separate pollen-producing organs
and female organs may have evolved to be joined.
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recounts the journey and discoveries of early 1900s botanist
Ernest H. Wilson, who collected more than 20,000 plant specimens
from China.
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suggests a hypothesis for how the first flower may have evolved.
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introduces a botanist who disagrees that Archaefructus is
the first flowering plant and describes how her technique of
sifting through ancient sediments has revealed a
120-million-year-old flower.
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explains another botanist's method of analyzing leaf vein
patterns and pollen structure to reveal clues to plant
evolution, and notes that the first pollen shows up on rocks of
the Cretaceous period 134 million years ago.
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reports on radioactive decay measurements of ash beds
surrounding the Archaefructus fossil site that date it to
the early Cretaceous rather than the Jurassic Period it was
first believed to have evolved in.
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describes the original method used to organize the plant family
tree—by comparing features of plants—and explains
how plant DNA analysis has rewritten that record.
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reports that DNA analysis identifies
Amborella trichopoda—a plant only found on New
Caledonia—as the oldest living flowering plant.
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states that Archaefructus appears older than
Amborella based on pollen, leaf, and flower analysis.
NOVA presents the search for the first flowering plant.
