It is a species of poisonous flower unknown until now. It has been discovered in a mine in a mountain range in the Dominican Republic wrapped in amber and is between 20 and 30 million years old. The finding has been published in the journal Nature Plants.
Prehistoric jungles in what is now the Dominican Republic had a species of poisonous flower of the genus Strychnos . Researchers from the universities of Oregon and Rutgers (USA) have found two specimens of the asteridae family (such as pepper, mint, coffee …), famous for being producers of poisons such as curare (used in the tips of arrows and darts to immobilize prey) or strychnine (used as a pesticide especially for birds and rodents).
These new plant fossils (the result of an examination of more than 500 fossils collected in 1986 in said amber mine), individually immortalized in amber, have been called Strychnos electri and would have an antiquity of between 15 and 20 million years ago or of between 30 and 45 million years ago. According to the scientists, the two specimens are surprisingly intact, as if they had just fallen from the tree, something that is not common in fossilized flowers.
The fossils of these flowers – one of the most diverse plant genera on Earth – in which their petals can be seen, will offer us information about the evolution and composition of the Caribbean forests before North America and South America ended up united.
