Description

Florissantia speirii (Lesquereux)

Oligocene

Little Butte Volcanics – Lyons Flora

Thomas Creek, OR USA.

Large 29mm flower on 84mm slab.

Plant.

Florissantia is an extinct genus of plant in the Family Malvaceae which includes cotton, hollyhock, durian, linden tree, mallow, and above all, cacao, the seeds of which are used to make chocolate.  Florissantia flowers are found in the Eocene to Oligocene of western North America and the Miocene of eastern Asia.

Flowers are fragile natural structures rarely found as fossils.  Florissantia is among the fuller, more detailed fossil flowers you can find.