1. Today01 / 06
   
   Present day

   Your garden has deep roots.

   Tomatoes, basil and sunflowers belong to the flowering plants. Their family tree reaches back into the age of dinosaurs.

   Living examples · tomato, basil, sunflower

   Source · Kew
2. ≈ 80 million years ago02 / 06
   
   Late Cretaceous

   The daisy family takes root.

   Fossil pollen from Antarctica places the daisy family around 80 million years ago. Sunflowers and daisies are living relatives of this ancient lineage.

   Living relatives · sunflower, daisy

   Source · Kew
3. ≈ 130 million years ago03 / 06
   
   Early Cretaceous

   A world begins to bloom.

   Early flowering plants appear in the fossil record. Flowers and seeds enclosed in fruits open a new chapter; their exact evolutionary origin is still debated.

   Early-branching living lineages · water lilies, Amborella

   Source · Kew
4. ≈ 300 million years ago04 / 06
   
   Late Carboniferous

   Seeds without flowers.

   Conifers have a history stretching back more than 300 million years. Their seeds develop without an enclosing fruit, unlike those of flowering plants.

   Living relatives · pines, firs, redwoods

   Source · Kew
5. ≈ 360 million years ago05 / 06
   
   Early Carboniferous

   The age of fern fronds.

   The lineage of leptosporangiate ferns dates to roughly the start of the Carboniferous. Ferns reproduce by spores; many familiar fern groups diversified much later.

   Living relatives · many of today’s familiar ferns

   Source · Schuettpelz & Pryer · PNAS
6. ≈ 470 million years ago06 / 06
   
   Ordovician

   A small step onto land.

   Tiny fossil spores provide evidence of early land plants around 470 million years ago. Their exact appearance and relationships remain uncertain; mosses offer a living comparison.

   Living comparison · mosses, not the same ancient species

   Source · Natural History Museum

Ma = million years ago. Dates are approximate milestones for lineages or fossils, not the ages of living species. Illustrations show living relatives or simplified forms. The timeline is not to scale.