Plant Fossils

Perhaps the most beautiful and artistic fossils are those of whole plant leaves or clusters. Drawings, furniture, fabric and other textiles depicting fossilized plants are featured in home decorating, and amber (fossilized tree sap) is commonly used in fine jewelry. In reality, most plant fossils are found as leaves, flowers, bark, or other small pieces of the whole.

Plant Fossils: Beautiful yet Significant

Plant fossils (including ferns) can be found in large numbers in coal fields through Europe and the Eastern United States. Specifically, Utah and Colorado (as well as British Columbia, Canada) are great places to search for fossilized leaves. Throughout Arizona, petrified wood can be found in great quantities. Other types of plant fossils include fossilized amber, ferns, pinecones and tree bark.

Petrified wood may be the most frequently displayed and well-known plant fossil, because of its beautiful colors and fascinating evolution. A tree becomes petrified when each cell in its trunk is replaced with a cell of a mineral such as silica. The result is an exact mineral-composed solid-rock "replica" of the original tree. Petrified trees may be found in red, orange, green or yellow, and this coloration is a result of trace elements in the replacement mineral.

It's important to remember that plant fossils represent much more than simple aesthetics. Plants are the single most important kingdom of life forms in human existence. Additionally, plant fossils are responsible for coal deposits and oil reserves, and plant fossils can assist paleontologists in understanding Continental Drift.