Prehistoric 'pine' cones

You may recall that Linda and I collect prehistoric plants: living survivors from the time when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth! We have lots of Cycads, a Wollemi Pine, a large Tree Fern, an Araucaria, several Horsetails, Metasequoias and so on. The species that many people are surprised to find is a representative of an equally ancient group is the Magnolia. Believe it or not these are among the oldest flowering plants, and a hundred million years ago they grew across much of North America and Europe!

One tell-tale feature that betrays their primitive origin is the fact that their beautiful flowers - like most ancient plants - produce a seed-bearing cone: compare it to the other examples from our garden in the photo below.