These 95-million-year-old flowers bloomed before bees existed and still attract beetles |
Image(s): Smithsonian Gardens Magnolia trees are admired around the world for their large, fragrant flowers, but they also preserve one of the oldest evolutionary stories in the plant kingdom. Long before bees, butterflies or many modern flowering plants appeared, magnolias were already blooming across prehistoric landscapes. Fossil evidence suggests the ancestors of modern magnolias evolved…