Bitterroot Restoration

Leaves, which have fallen into the mud at the bottom of a lake, may leave behind carbon films and impressions that are preserved as the mud slowly turns into rock. A piece of wood, or even a whole tree may be quickly buried in sediment-the absence of oxygen stopping decay from occurring. Ground water then fills all the pores (or little spaces) in the wood with minerals, usually silica. The wood thereby becomes petrified, or turned to stone.A plant fossil is any preserved part of a plant that has long since died.

Kinds of plant fossils
One of the most common kinds of plant fossils is a compression fossil, in which a leaf or flattened part of the plant has been pressed between layers of sediment. Also common are fossil pollen and spores from ancient lake beds, as well as charcoal. Less common, but economically more important, is coal from the plants of Carboniferous swamps. One of the most spectacular of plant fossils is petrified wood.

Coal is formed in a complex process from the partly decayed and compressed remains of ferns and other plants that grew in swampy conditions. Brown coal is generally of more recent origin than black coal and contains more water. Victoria's Latrobe Valley has large deposits of brown coal (less than 65 million years old), while black coal is found particularly in New South Wales and Queensland (200 to 300 million years old).Plants have evolved over time. Australia's fossil record shows that during the Jurassic Period the dominant plants were Cycads, gingkoes, conifers and ferns. In the next large time period, the Cretaceous Period, flowering plants made their first appearance. One of the oldest known flowers was discovered in 115-118 million year old rocks at Koonwarra (south Gippsland) in 1989.

Cycads
Cycads are sometimes called 'living fossils' because they reached their peak in the Jurassic Period (141 to 205 million years ago). Cycads are a member of the order Cycadales, which are the most primitive seed bearing plants. Like the related conifers (order Coniferales), Cycads are cone bearing. They are a group of seed plants characterized by a large crown of compound leaves and a stout trunk. They are evergreen, gymnospermous, dioecious plants having large pinnately compound leaves.

Araucarias
These ancient conifers reached their peak in the Mesozoic (251 to 65 million years ago). They are named after a group of South American Indians, the Araucani. The common names of the araucaria include the Hoop Pine, Bunya Bunya Pine, Norfolk Island Pine, Kauri Pine and the South American Monkey Puzzle Tree.

Ferns
Ferns are one of the most ancient plant groups surviving today. They first appear in the fossil record in the Carboniferous Period, over 300 million years ago. Ferns are now confined to fairly wet areas but once dominated the Earth's forests.

Gingkoes Jurassic
Gingkoes have been found as 240 million year old fossils. The formerly extensive family of gingkoes has been reduced to just one species, Gingko biloba. The discovery of this species in the gardens of some Chinese monasteries a century ago surprised scientists, who had thought it extinct. Gingkoes are gymnosperms, and are therefore related to conifers.

These are the permineralized seeds of a medullosan seed fern. These particular fossils come from the Francis Creek Shale in Illinois, and are more than 300 million years old.

Glossopteris, an important plant in widespread Permian floras of the Southern Hemisphere, was a seed plant. Glossopteris, the genus from which the group gets its name, is also the largest and best-known member of the Glossopteridales. More than 70 species of this genus have been recognized in India alone, with additional species from South America, Australia, Africa, and Antarctica. Only a few fossils from the northern hemisphere have been considered as members of this group, but these are not identified with great certainty. Our best guess is that they were large shrubs or small trees, perhaps a bit like a magnolia or ginkgo. There is at least some evidence that, like Ginkgo, glossopterids had a stem system of both long and short shoots. In Ginkgo, it is the short shoots that produce most of the leaves, and that bear the seeds and pollen structures. This may also have been the case for the glossopterids, but no one is certain.

Cycads

Scientific classification of Cycads
Kingdom: Plantae
  Division: Cycadophyta
    Class: Cycadopsida
      Order: Cycadales
        Family: Cycadaceae, Stangeriaceae, Zamiaceae
          Genus: Cycas, Stangeria, Zamia

Description:
Living Cycads are found in the tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of both the north and south hemispheres. There are about 305 described species, in 10–12 genera and 2–3 families of Cycads. Cycads are basically woody plants which have roots, a stem, leaves and reproductive structures known as cones. They are frequently confused with palms or ferns, but they are an ancient group of seed plants . The main roots of Cycads are thickened and fleshy and as they may have storage capacities they are often termed tuberous. The stems of Cycads may be completely subterranean or emerge from the ground and be trunk-like. Soil depth may influence this development and in shallow, stony soils, species which normally have subterranean stems may develop an above-ground trunk. The leaves of most Cycads are once-divided (pinnate) and often develop an attractive palm-like crown. Cycads reproduce when mature by the production of cones. A plant is either male or female. the male cone producing pollen and on a female cone they bear large ovules which if fertilised develop into seeds. The seeds of Cycads are relatively large and have an outer layer (sarcotesta) which is often colourful.