While land plants have existed for about 425 million years, the first ones [[plant sexuality|reproduced]] by a simple adaptation of their aquatic counterparts: [[spore]]s. In the sea, plants—and some animals—can simply scatter out genetic [[clones]] of themselves to float away and grow elsewhere. This is how early plants reproduced. But plants soon evolved methods of protecting these copies to deal with drying out and other abuse which is even more likely on land than in the sea. The protection became the [[seed]], though it had not yet evolved the flower. Early seed-bearing plants include the [[ginkgo]] and [[conifer]]s. The earliest fossil of a flowering plant, ''[[Archaefructus|Archaefructus liaoningensis]]'', is dated about 125 million years old.<ref> [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/flower/anatomy.html Flowers Modern & Ancient]
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Several groups of extinct gymnosperms, particularly [[seed fern]]s, have been proposed as the ancestors of flowering plants but there is no continuous fossil evidence showing exactly how flowers evolved. The apparently sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in the fossil record posed such a problem for the theory of evolution that it was called an "abominable mystery" by [[Charles Darwin]]. Recently discovered angiosperm fossils such as ''Archaefructus'', along with further discoveries of fossil gymnosperms, suggest how angiosperm characteristics may have been acquired in a series of steps.
නිව් කැලිෆොනියා ප්රදේශයෙන් හමුවූ ඇබොරෙල්ලා ත්රිකොපොඩා නම් ශාක විශේෂය සපුෂ්ප ශාකවල මුල් පූර්වජකයන්ට අයත් බවයි<ref>[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/uoca-spp051506.php South Pacific plant may be missing link in evolution of flowering plants]</ref>
Recent [[DNA]] analysis ([[molecular systematics]])<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3405_flower.html First Flower]</ref><ref>[http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/6/997 Amborella not a "basal angiosperm"? Not so fast]</ref> show that [[Amborella|''Amborella trichopoda'']], found on the Pacific island of [[New Caledonia]], is the [[sister group]] to the rest of the flowering plants, and morphological studies<ref>[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/uoca-spp051506.php South Pacific plant may be missing link in evolution of flowering plants]</ref> suggest that it has features which may have been characteristic of the earliest flowering plants.
