Ancient Rhamnaceae flowers impute an origin for flowering plants exceeding 250-million-years ago

Setting the molecular clock to newly described 100-million-year-old flowering shoots of Phylica in Burmese amber enabled us to recalibrate the phylogenetic history of Rhamnaceae. We traced its origin to ∼260 million years ago (Ma) that can explain its migration within and beyond Gondwana since that time and implies an origin for flowering plants that stretches well beyond 290 Ma. Ancestral trait assignments also revealed that hard-seededness, fire-proneness, and to a lesser extent, heat-released seed dormancy, have a similarly long history in this clade. [Display omitted] •100-million-year-old fossils of Phylica (Rhamnaceae) have recently been described•Phylogenetic reconstruction using them reveals a crown age for Rhamnaceae at 259 Ma•Ancestral trait reconstruction shows the associated vegetation was fire prone 259 Ma•These are the oldest flowering-plant ages and fire-related traits obtained so far Paleontology; Earth history; Plants; Plant evolution