Description

Phoenix windmillis
Flower
Early Eocene
Green River Formation
Kemmerer, Wyoming, USA

Rare 14mm palm flower on 62mm slab from the “split fish” layers.

Phoenix is a plant genus containing various date palms and dates back to the Late Cretaceous.  It eventually died out in North America as climates trended cooler across the continent and across the Cenozoic Era.  It still lives today in northern Africa and Asia.

For more information, see:

Allen, S.E.  2015.
Fossil Palm Flowers from the Eocene of the Rocky Mountain Region with Affinities to Phoenix L. (Arecaceae: Coryphoideae).  International Journal of Plant Sciences,  Vol. 176, No. 6 (July/August 2015), pp. 586-596.

It’s amazing something so small and delicate has remained recognizable after 50 million years.