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Paleo Garden Exhibit KU Natural History Museum

Explore the evolutionary history of plant life in our garden of fossil plants and their living relatives.

Watch a 1 minute video tour of our paleo garden. Scroll down to learn more about these fossil plants and their living relatives.

Giant Swamp Plants and the Seed Explosion

Clubmoss trees, giant horsetails and ferns filled the warm swamp forests of the early Carboniferous. The climate became cooler and drier as the continents moved. Clubmosses and horsetails declined and seed-bearing plants, such as early conifers, diversified.

Fossil Plant Specimens

Sigillaria (clubmoss) grew up to 80 feet (24 m) tall

Living Relatives

Clubmoss: Lycopodium squarrosum - Rock tassel fern
Clubmoss: Diphasiastrum tristachyum - Blue clubmoss
Clubmoss: Huperzia phlegmaria - Course tassel fern
Clubmoss: Isoetes velata - Quillwort
Spikemoss: Selaginella erythropus - Ruby red spike moss
Spikemoss: Selaginella kraussiana - Krauss’ spikemoss

Fossil Plant Specimens

Living Relatives

Horsetail: Equisetum hyemale - Rough horsetail
Horsetail: Equisetum arvense - Field horsetail

Fossil Plant Specimens

Living Relative

Fern: Angiopteris evecta - King fern
Angiopteris evecta (King Fern) can grow up to 30 feet (9 m) tall with fronds up to 20 feet (7 m) in length.

The diagram below shows how these groups of plants are related.

The Rise of Flowers

Early Cretaceous forests were filled with non-flowering seed plants such as cycads, ginkgoes and conifers. Flowering plants and fern groups evolved and diversified in the warm, stable climate. More than 90% of living plants are flowering groups.

Fossil Plant Specimen

Living Relatives

Fern: Cyathea cooper - Australian tree fern
Fern: Adiantum sp. - Maidenhair fern
Fern: Dryopteris sp. - Wood fern

Fossil Plant Specimens

Living Relatives

Flowering seed plant: Peperomia fraseri - Flowering peperomia
Flowering seed plant: Peperomia fraseri - Flowering peperomia
Flowering seed plant: Magnolia 'Jane'- Hybrid of M. liliiflora and M. stellata
Flowering seed plant: Sassafras album - Common sassafras
Flowering seed plant: Salix alba - White willow
Flowering seed plant: Populus deltoides - Eastern cottonwood

Fossil Plant Specimens

Living Relatives

Non-flowering seed plant: Araucaria araucana - Monkey puzzle
Non-flowering seed plant: Araucaria heterophylla - Norfolk Island Pine
Non-flowering seed plant: Cycas revoluta - Sago cycad
Non-flowering seed plant: Zamia furfuracea - Cardboard cycad

The diagram below shows how these groups of plants are related.

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