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Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. 2 Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources and
Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA. * e-mail: poinarg@science.oregonstate.edu;
struwe@aesop.rutgers.edu
1
LETTERS
NATURE PLANTS
seen; style one, simple, lamentous, exserted from corolla (at least
810 mm long past corolla lobes); stigma capitate (Figs 1 and 2).
Notes. Both specimens retain the corolla, staminal unit and style
that have separated from the ower base after anthesis.
Consequently, the calyx and ovary are missing. We have compared
the amber fossils with owers from Strychnos taxa with external
DOI: 10.1038/NPLANTS.2016.5
Table 1 | Floral morphological comparison of morphologically similar extant Strychnos species with Strychnos electri.
Strychnos electri
Distribution
Mid-Tertiary amber
from Dominican
Republic
1011 mm
8.08.7 mm
1.11.3 mm
Densely tomentose
Strychnos panamensis
var. hirtiora
Belize, Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico, Panama
1723 mm
1520 mm
23 mm
Abundant or sparse,
short to long, straight
hairs
Tufts of pubescence
Anther position
Sessile
On distinct laments
Anther length
0.60.8 mm
About 1 mm
Strychnos pseudoquina
Brazil, Paraguay
78 mm
57 mm
23 mm
Sparse long hairs
Dense tufts of
woolly
pubescence
Sessile or on very
short laments
About 1 mm
Strychnos tomentosa
Strychnos toxifera
Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guyana,
Panama, Venezuela
1719 mm
About 15 mm long
24 mm
Abundance of long, thin
silky hairs and papillae
On short laments
(1 mm long)
About 1 mm
On short laments
(23 mm long)
About 1 mm
NATURE PLANTS
LETTERS
DOI: 10.1038/NPLANTS.2016.5
Methods
The two fossil owers are in separate pieces of Dominican amber. They originated from
a mine in the northern mountain range (Cordillera Septentrional) of the Dominican
Republic between Puerto Plata and Santiago on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
The amber occurred in the El Mamey formation, which is a Tertiary shalesandstone
deposit interspersed with a mixture of pebbles. Most of the amber was localized in a
ne-grained micaceous carbonaceous laminated greywacke within this deposit1.
Observations and photographs were made with a Nikon SMZ-10 R stereoscopic
microscope and Nikon Optiphot compound microscope with magnications up to 600.
Helicon Focus Pro X64 was used to stack photos for better clarity and depth of eld.
Comparative studies of herbarium materials of extant neotropical Strychnos
species were made by the second author at the herbaria of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the New York
Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.
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Acknowledgements
The authors graciously thank K. Gandhi of Harvard University for help with Latin
nomenclature and D. Bhattacharya of Rutgers University for comments on an earlier
version of this article.
Author contributions
G.O.P. provided the data and analysis of the amber fossils (measurements and
morphological data), all photographs except the extant Strychnos species and was the
primary author for the palaeontological parts of the manuscript. L.S. provided data, photo
and text regarding extant taxa in the Gentianales and other asterids, evaluation of asterid
dating times and was the primary author of the new species description.
Additional information
Reprints and permissions information is available online at www.nature.com/reprints.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.O.P. and L.S.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing nancial interests.