Fossil Drosera pollen
Michael.Chamberland (23274MJC@MSU.EDU)
Sun, 10 Dec 95 10:20 EST
> 1.) It seems you have chosen a somewhat less than ideal object for your
> research paper. The fossil record of all carnivorous plants is rather
> scant. Only fossil pollen of (probably) Droseraceae are +/- well
> represented in the European Tertiary (and later), and still it would be
> very euphemistic to call the few points on a map representing these
> specimens a "distribution pattern". Even less can be said about global
> distribution patterns of cps. And worst of all, not the tiniest bit of
> fossil Sarraceniaceae is known (at least to me).
To the best of my knowledge all plants in the Droseraceae are insect
pollinated. I would expect Drosera pollen to be found only in Drosera
flowers and on insects (and also perhaps on other plant flowers which
the insects visited). What would account for a +/- good representation
of Drosera pollen in the fossil record, when it would seem that Drosera
pollen should be pretty scarce and localized item, unlike the pollen of
wind-pollinated plants which dump huge amounts of pollen into the air?
Michael Chamberland