A pine cone encased in amber for 40 million years is the first evidence of a rare botanical condition that has only been observed one other time in the conifer in 1965. The frozen scene shows the pine cone sprouting seeds that produced embryonic stems, which is a process known as precocious germination and typically only found among fruits like tomatoes and grapefruit 'I find it fascinating that the seeds in this small pine cone could start to germinate inside the cone and the sprouts could grow out so far before they perished in the resin.' First fossilized evidence of a pine cone sprouting seeds is found in 40-million-year-old amber | Daily Mail Online
That is fascinating to find such a phenomenon preserved in amber from 40 million years ago. I had never heard of vivipary until many years ago when I noticed a tomato still very firm while others were softening. I left it for another week and then cut it open . . . it looked like it was filled with little white maggots which actually turned out to be roots of the seeds inside. Is it also vivipary when avocado pits begin germinating inside the fruit or Garry Oak acorns begin growing roots while still hanging on the tree? I wonder.
Here's a posting with photos of tomatoes, but with sprouts on the outside. Teasel Surprise In that thread, Daniel Mosquin linked to Vivipary - Wikipedia, which says
So that's what it's called - vivipary. A long time ago one of my venus flytraps developed a plantlet on an inflorescence. I thought it was really cool.
