Plants of the Dinosaur World
Illustrations by Caroline Stromberg
Photographs © Botanics

Project Exploration’s Mesozoic Garden includes representatives from all plant groups alive at the time of the dinosaurs, including mosses, horsetails, ferns, tree ferns, cycads, ginkgos, conifers, palms, blooming water lilies and magnolias. Only by bringing together plants from around the globe and a variety of modern environments can a dinosaur-age scene be recreated. Some of the plants, like ginkgos, look virtually the same as their extinct ancestors; some, like the conifer Araucaria, were the dominant trees of the forests 110 million years ago.

EARLY PLANTS LIVED IN WET ENVIRONMENTS AND REPRODUCED USING SPORES:
Early land plants inhabited a hot, humid environment. 300 million years ago, many land areas were covered in wet forests of giant clubmoss, horsetails and ferns. These seedless plants reproduce with spores, which require humid environments to survive.

Clubmoss & horsetails Horsetails (Equisetum) have a central, hollow stem with whorls of leaves or thin branches. They hold their spores in a cigar-shaped “cone” at the top of the plant. Horsetails date back to ~370 million years ago. During the beginning of the dinosaur era they grew to be nearly 30 feet tall (10m.)
Horsetail Equisetum, "Horsetail" Clubmoss Selaginella, "Clubmoss"
Ferns Ferns live in a wide range of environments. They have large leaves (fronds), which are made up of several smaller segments (pinnae). Ferns produce spores on the undersides of their fronds. Ferns date back ~370 million years ago.
Microsorum scolopendria, "Wart Fern"	Fern	Nephrolepsis exaltata, "Sword Fern"
Tree Fern Cyathea australis, "Australian Tree Fern"