Black beech (Nothofagus solandri) has small red flowers. It blooms in early summer, but only about every three years. The Nothofagus family has been represented in New Zealand for 85 million years (since the land broke away from the supercontinent, Gondwana). But both fossil finds and DNA research show that present-day southern beech species are much younger, having evolved from an ancestor that arrived in New Zealand about 30–40 million years ago.
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Natural Sciences Image Library of New Zealand
Reference:
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