Considering that amber originated from plant sap exuded in environments where other plants abounded, it has been observed that such plants are comparatively rare inclusions. Luckily, there are some breathtaking exceptions.
Flowering plants emerged some 99 million years ago, when Myanmar amber was still sticky tree sap in a tropical forest. Several flowers have been preserved, including one remarkable fossil of two flowers having sex! The male anther of one flower can clearly be seen inserted into the female stigma of another.
Flowers are the reproductive organs of plants and their evolution allowed for the more efficient transfer of pollen via agents such as bees and other insects. It was the flower-power revolution that lead to them becoming the dominant botanical group in the world today.
Flowers have also been recovered from the much younger Dominican amber. One specimen represents a group of plants known as the asterids, which today includes around a third of all flowering plants, comprising some 80,000 species, including sunflowers, coffee, peppers, potatoes and mint.
This single fossilised flower indicates that the asterids had made it to the New World by around 20 million years ago. Named Strychnos electri, it is thought to be closely related to the strychnine tree. In 2014, a report was published of part of a carnivorous plant perfectly preserved in Baltic amber. Its sticky tentacles closely resemble those of Roridula, a unique plant now known only to grow in South Africa. The fact that this fossil comes from the other end of the Earth indicates that this group once had a much wider distribution.
Flowers are rare in the amber record, but this one, named Strychnos electri, is thought to be closely related to the strychnine tree.