World's largest fossilised amber flower!
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This fossilised flower is the largest of its kind, and it's VERY old!
Bunches of flowers are a lovely way to brighten up a room, but they tend to wilt after about a week and need replacing.
There are some ancient flowers though that have stayed exactly the same for millions of years.
Why? Because they've been fossilised (or preserved) in a substance called amber.
Scientists have recently been studying the biggest of these in the world, which was first discovered 150 years ago, and they've said that it could be up to 40 million years old!
The researchers say that studying this brilliant bloom can help teach us lots of things about our planet.
Dr Eva-Maria Sadowski who co-authored the study, explained: "Our new findings about this extraordinary and beautiful flower inclusion are additional puzzle pieces that allow us to decipher the flora of the Baltic amber forest and to understand the climate of the past.
"This new knowledge helps us to gain deeper insights into the forests of Earth's history and to understand their evolution in time and space."
How big is the fossilised flower?
It was first discovered 150 years ago, but some scientists have been taking another look at it
The fossilised flower is about 3cm wide, which is three times larger than most others preserved in amber.
The scientists believe it was enclosed in amber somewhere between 38 to 34 million years ago.
Dr Sadowski said "it looks like it's floating" in the golden resin.
Being trapped in amber allowed the bloom to act like a time capsule - with its petals, stem and pollen preserved in detail.
It even contains pollen grains that it released millions of years ago.
How are things preserved in amber?
This is tree resin, which, after a very lengthy process (think millions of years), eventually becomes amber
Trees form a sticky substance called resin. When they excrete it, all sorts of things can get stuck - insects, feathers, and as in this case, flowers.
The resin then dries, trapping whatever's stuck inside. When it's completely hardened, it's called copal.
As the copal ages over millions of years, it starts to turn a yellow colour, and this is how it becomes amber.
Where was this flower first discovered?
This forest in Estonia is one of the places that amber fossils can be found
It was found in the 1872 in the Baltic region of Northern Europe.
This refers to the three countries on the Baltic Sea; Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
It comes in lots of different shades - yellow, with bits of orange, brown, and, rarely, red
If it's a milky-white colour, it's called bone amber
Amber that's completely transparent (or see through) is classed as a gem
The Baltic states are famed for their amber jewellery and ornaments - you can even buy huge trees made out of it!
Amber jewellery is very popular in the Baltic states - check out how much of it there is in this shop in the Latvian capital Riga!
The region is famous for its amber - it's estimated the forests there produced over 100,000 tonnes of it.
This makes it the largest deposit of amber in the world.
What kind of flower is it?
When it was first discovered, scientists named the preserved blossom Stewartia Kowalewskii.
But analysis suggests the flower is closely related to a class of Asian plants known as Symplocos.
Based on this, the people who studied it recently want to rename the flower.
They want to call it Symplocos Kowalewskii, a group that belongs to the tea family.
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