The botanical ancestors of New Zealand’s iconic pōhutukawa tree may have originated in Australia, according to fossil research by a PhD student at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.
Myall Tarran has described two new fossil species of Metrosideros, a genus of around 60 plants that are mostly found in Pacific countries. New Zealand has 12 species, including the pōhutukawa, which is also known as the Kiwi Christmas tree, but the genus does not occur in Australia.
A paper on his fossil research has been published in the American Journal of Botany.
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