Heidi Anderson wrote on Monday:

> I am currently working on a dinosaur exhibit and am having some trouble
finding flowering plants that lived both in the Mesozoic and in the
recent.  What type of flowering plants existed in both times and do you
have any ideas as to where I might find artificial representations of
these plants?

****

To Heidi, and to any other Mesozoic fans out there:

This summer the Field Museum is mounting a temporary exhibit about
dinosaurs.  We needed a cheap source of models of Mesozoic plants for the
Late Cretaceous (75 million years ago, to be precise), so the manager of
our replication shop took a bunch of catalogs of artificial plants (mostly
silk) and sat down with a curator of fossil plants.  Here's a list of what
he approved:

Plants with flowers on them:
Camelia
Canna
Ginger

Angiosperms that just show their leaves:
Palms (at least some kinds...)
Banana leaves (trees and shrubs)
Ficus
Ginkgo
Birch
Beech

He said "No!" to grass, orchids, and several varieties of ferns, including
Bird's nest and Rabbit's foot.

Conifers that met with his approval included Cypress, Spruce, and Pine.
He also approved of Cycads and type of tree fern frond called "Hawaiian
Fern" in our catalogs.

These kinds of silk plants should be available from many sources.  (We can
tell you our supplier if you're interested.)

Now, if you have some money to spend, I can also recommend a woman who did
a really wonderful silk version of a 95 million year old magnolia-like
flower from Kansas (Archaeanthus linnenbergeri) for both The Field
Museum's Life Over Time exhibit and Denver Museum of Natural History's
Prehistoric Journey.  Her name is Susan Tan, and she can be reached at
[log in to unmask]

Good luck with your project!

Eric Gyllenhaal
Exhibit Developer
The Field Museum