Flowering Plants
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The 250,000 to 400,000 species of flowering plants outnumber all other ground plants combined, and are the dominant vegetation in most terrestrial ecosystems. There is fossil evidence that flowering plants diversified rapidly in the Early Cretaceous, from 130 to 90 Ma, and that their rise was associated with that of pollinating insects. Among modern flowering plants Magnolias are thought to be close to the common ancestor of the group. However paleontologists have not succeeded in identifying the earliest stages in the evolution of flowering plants.
Read more about this topic: Evolutionary History Of Life
Famous quotes containing the words flowering and/or plants:
“we, outlaws on God’s property,
Fling out imagination beyond the skies,
Wishing a tangible good from the unknown.
And likewise death will drive us from the scene
With the great flowering world unbroken yet,
Which we held in idea, a little handful.”
—Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)
“All plants move, but they don’t usually pull themselves out of the ground and chase you.”
—Philip Yordan (b. 1913)