A History of the Fuchsia | The Fuchsietum

History of the Fuchsia
Yes, there were once fuchsias growing in Antarctica. And Australia, too, while they were at it.

The Cenozoic Era
Or the Age of Fuchsias

PALEOGENE PERIOD
Paleocene Epoch 66–56 ma
Eocene Epoch 56–34 ma
Oligocene Epoch 34–23 ma

NEOGENE PERIOD
Miocene Epoch 23–5.3 ma
Pliocene Epoch 5.3–2.6 ma

QUATERNARY PERIOD
Pleistocene Epoch 2.6 ma–12 ka
Holocene Epoch 12 ka–Today

Australia, Antarctica and South America have long been going their own ways after the great break-up of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. For quite a geological time, though, they seem to have remained somewhat of a trio, these three continents. Australia was still almost connected to Antarctica towards the end of Eocene Epoch (56-34 million years ago) when the dawn fuchsia made its first appearance in the brightening light of an early day. And it wasn’t until the upper half of the Oligocene (34-23 mya) that the Drake Passage even opened enough to meaningfully separate Antarctica from South America. Africa, another former part of Gondwana, had sped off on its own far earlier, but was still just a tad closer to the South Pole in the Oligocene. India was also a bit further to the southwest than it is today and in the earlier stages of crashing into Asia to raise the Himalayas.

In this distant past, the climate of the Southern Hemisphere was a far cry from what it is now. Warm ocean currents flowed quite differently around its large land masses, buffering them from the cold. Similarly, the North Atlantic Current now keeps Northern Europe much warmer, at its high latitude, than it would otherwise be without its gentling effects. From the beginning of the Paleocene (66-56 mya), the climate in Antarctica was tropical to subtropical and marsupials roamed the land. Things cooled considerably into the Eocene. But Antarctica was still not as cold as it is today. While there were certainly glaciers in the high mountainous regions of the polar continent—as there are similar ones at high elevations on the equator today—Antarctica was home to extensive temperate forests during the Eocene.

That is, until the Drake Passage opened enough during the Oligocene and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current developed about 30 million years ago. [1] Its cold waters now completely surround and isolate the southern polar continent, holding it in an icy embrace. Antarctica probably won’t permanently escape its cold fate as long as this frigid stream cuts off any warmer ocean waters from reaching its shores. [2] By another ten million years, the Andes were also slowly rising high enough, first in the north and then by yet another ten million years in the south, to further affect the world's climate patterns. Antarctic forests slowly gave way to tundra and then tundra to the barrenness of ice.

Or maybe not quite that way either. That tale of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current has been conventional wisdom. However, a very recent paper suggests that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current many not have been the cause of Antarctic glaciation after all, but a symptom of it. Declining levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere might have led to the formation of the continent wide ice sheet, which in turn led to the formation, or at least the strengthening, of the Circumpolar Current. Stay tuned for more on this fascinating direction of research from scientists. In the meantime, back to the Fuchsia. [3]

In 1987, Prof. Paul E. Berry suggested that the ancestral Fuchsia might have first appeared in the temperate forests of southern South America in Section Quelusia. He reasoned that this is the area of Fuchsia habitat that has seen the least amount of geological change in the past tens of millions of years. However, from more recent research by Berry, et al., the earliest evolution and geographic origins of the genus are far from clear. [4] According to molecular DNA analyses, Fuchsia split from Circaea, its most closely related sister genus, about 41 million years ago. Circaea, or Enchanter’s-Nightshade, is circumboreal. That is, it is native to the cool temperate forests girdling the far Northern Hemisphere. Also, Fuchsia+Circaea seems to have previously split from Hauya, currently a Central American genus of three species found in warmer temperate forests, about 53 million years ago.

This new biogeography is an odd one for a proposed southern South American origin. It seems more likely, perhaps, that the genus has moved southwards from a more northerly homeland rather than spreading in the other direction as was originally suggested. From the late Eocene Epoch (56-34 mya) there was a gradual transition from tropical vegetation to temperate forests. Much of the world became covered from pole to pole by these forests in the Oligocene.

Continuing geological changes, however, caused the world to become progressively dryer, colder and ever more dominated by vast grasslands into the Miocene (23 to 5 mya).

Unlike many other members of the Onagraceae that disperse their seeds on tufts carried off by the wind, Fuchsia's tiny seeds are encased in soft berries, The kinds of berries birds like to eat. It’s entirely logical that the earliest Fuchsia was dispersed southwards, most likely by migrating birds, to establish itself along the way into those areas of cooler habitat that were most similar to its original home. In forests at higher elevations, or at cooler lower latitudes. Dispersed right past the bottom of the globe and on to temperate Australia, still much closer to Antarctica on other side of the globe in those days.

Birds, after all, continue to migrate from north to south, or maybe south to north, and back again, as they probably have since they first wore enough feathers to fly any distance.

Today, we usually think of avian migrations looping from the north where they breed to the south where they winter. But when the Southern Hemisphere was laid out quite differently in the distant past, more migrants might have vacationed for the summer season in the cooler—but still not entirely frozen—southern end of the globe. And spent their winters in the warmer north. Fuchsia would have been carried along for the ride.

With other associated genera from the Antarcto-Tertiary Geoflora, Fuchsia was likely spread across land bridges or narrow straights from South America to temperate Antarctica after its origin at the end of the Eocene Epoch into the Oligocene. From there, it went on to Australia, which itself wasn’t fully separated from Antarctica until the opening of the Tasman Sea about 34 million years ago. In fact, fossilized fuchsia pollen grains from the late Oligocene to the early Miocene have been reported from New Zealand and Australia (as well as South America). [5] The fuchsias found in New Zealand today are possibly (re)colonists from Australia. There is some controversial speculation that the whole of the thin and narrow Zealandia continental plate under those islands might have been fully submerged about 23 million years ago, before the land slowly re-emerged. Of course, this theory does't account for the diverse numbers of genera in New Zealand with clear connections to South America and, especially, for fresh-water animals that couldn't easily survive a swim from Australia across salty seas.

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Interestingly enough, other members of the Onagraceae still occur in remnant Australasian ecosystems in the temperate highlands of tropical New Guinea, which is actually the leading edge of the Australian continental plate. New Guinea was also directly connected to Australia during the last Ice Age when sea levels were much lower than they are today. Fuchsia doesn’t seem to remain on New Guinea, though, if it was ever present there in the past. But there’s always some hope of amazing discoveries. After all, just look at the Wollemi Pine. If there's a Land of the Lost Fuchsias, the highlands of New Guinea might be it. Tasmania, of course, might be another candidate.

At this point, a few skeptics might interject, “But what about the crucial evidence from Antarctica?” Fuchsias are quite hardy plants, after all. But not that hardy to survive Antarctica's demanding weather so... Except for a single badly eroded fossil pollen grain from Seymour Island (1959)—one that may or may not be Fuchsia—there doesn’t seem to much of anything left. Yet. This is not surprising since that continent has been locked under a mile of ice for at least the last 15 million years. Maybe longer. Maybe not. The crucial missing links will eventually be uncovered by scientists on their marks. It makes no sense for Fuchsia to have jumped so far from the proto-Tierra del Fuego to the proto-South Side of Sidney without also spending at least half an epoch or more hanging around the South Pole. There’s no Olympic vaulter of any age capable of that spectacular a leap. There are still a lot of surprises resting deep under Antarctic ice. Those surprises are just kind of hard to get at right now.

Hopefully, recent expeditions such as the one to drill deeply into ancient muddy sediments off the Antarctic coast and analyze the fossil pollen and spores they contain will finally provide some definitive evidence. [6]

The eventual, compete glaciation of Antarctica caused the extinction of any fuchsias on that continent. And the slowly warming, drying climate of Australia, as it drifted ever north towards the hot Equator, accomplished the end of the genus there as well. The remains of distinctive Fuchsia pollen (as Dipordites apsis, now Koninidites apsis) is documented in the fossil record of Australia. It confirms that Fuchsia had once flourished in the temperate forests the land of Oz hosted during the Miocene Epoch. It was likely represented by an unknown number of now-extinct species probably in the Skinnera section. These unfortunately can’t currently be differentiated from the pollen grains.

This hypothesis was recently supported by the description of the fossil-taxon, Fuchsia antiqua, found as an actual fossilized flower, along with a separate associated anther mass, in early Miocene limestone deposits at Foulden Maar in southern New Zealand.

Outside of its pollen, fossils of any member of the Evening Primrose Family, the Onagraceae, are exceptionally rare so this is quite an astonishing discovery. The novel fossil species was assigned to the Skinnera Section. [7] Three related, modern species of Fuchsia survive in the favorable climate of New Zealand today. Along with one isolated species on Tahiti.

Relatively recently in geological terms, birds most likely spread seed again, as they must have done epochs earlier from North America south. Yet another new species, F. cyrtandroides, is now established in the cooler highlands of the new volcanic island of Tahiti which started forming no more than three million years ago. The ancestor of this Tahitian species, however, split from the rest of the Skinnera section about eight million years ago. There might have been some intermediate island hopping involved in the dispersion as well. Of course, its ultimate ancestor could also have come from Australia by way of New Zealand. Or even more directly from Australia, skipping New Zealand altogether.

According to the recent revealing DNA studies, about 31 million years ago in the Oligocene Epoch, Fuchsia started to diversify into the four major ancestral lineages that are still reflected in the major sections of the genus today.

The South Pacific lineage, Skinnera and Procumbentes, seems to have been the first to become distinct about 30 million years ago. This date does make sense. It seems to be about the same time that the formidable Drake Passage opened widely and fully enough to firmly sever Antarctica from South America. And Australia had already gotten well on its way up the other side of the globe to stop any kind of direct intercontinental intercourse from easily continuing.

The Andean lineage, represented by sections Fuchsia and Hemsleyella, seems to have begun differentiating fairly rapidly into a large number of species with the rising of the Northern Andes starting about 22 million years ago. The lineage itself is probably considerably older. The Brazilian members of the southern Quelusia and Kierschlegeria lineages were split away from F. magellanica and F. lycioides by more geological changes caused by the rising Andes in the south as recently as 13 million years ago. In Central America and Mexico, the three sections of Ellobium, Encliandra and Schufia are thought to represent another very early northern lineage. Possibly two. [8]

Moving right along into the Holocene Epoch, to the year 1696 to be exact [9], Father Charles Plumier was in the Greater Antilles on his third expedition to the New World....

The Cenozoic Era
Or the Age of Fuchsias

TO BE CONTINUED

Illustrations: 1. A penguin in Antarctica; 2. Two Caribbean natives. Drawn by Charles Plumier on one of his botanizing expeditions to Hispaniola, where he also described the first fuchsia, Fuchsia triphylla; 3. Now 1000 km wide, the Drake Passage separates South America and Antarctica. Seymour island is at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.; 4. Circaea; 5. Hauya; 6. Berries of Fuchsia paniculata, native to Mexico and Central America; 7. Wollemi nobilis; 8. Fuchsia antiqua; 9. Fuchsia magellanica and a DNA strand; 10. Fuchsia magellanica along the shore of Lago Moscardi in the Patagonia Lake District, Argentina.

[1] Livermore et al. Paleogene Opening of the Drake Passage. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, July 2005, Vol. 236, Issues 1-2, pp. 459-470. ➤ Return to reading.

[2] There are indications that the ice sheet has retreated significantly in the past. In 1985, the remains of a 3-million-year-old temperate forest that stretched for about 1,300 kilometers along the Transantarctic Mountains were discovered. Unfortunately, there doesn’t also seem to be any indication that fuchsias re-introduced themselves along with the trees. ➤ More. ➤ Return to reading.

[3] ➤ A. Goldner, N. Herold, and M. Huber, "Antarctic glaciation caused ocean circulation changes at the Eocene-Oligocene transition", Nature, 2014. ➤ Ice Cores and Climate Change, British Antarctic Survey, 2014. ➤ Return to reading.

[4] Berry et al 2004. ➤ Scientific Bibliography. ➤ Return to reading.

[5] Daglian et al 1985. ➤ Scientific Bibliography. ➤ Return to reading.

[6] Sand Grains and Fossilized Pollen Reveal Climate History of Northern Antarctica. ➤ Article. ➤ Return to reading.

[7] Daphne E. Lee, John G. Conran, Jennifer M. Bannister, Uwe Kaulfuss and Dallas C. Mildenhall. A fossil Fuchsia (Onagraceae) flower and an anther mass with in situ pollen from the early Miocene of New Zealand, American Journal of Botany, October 2013, 100:2052-2065; published ahead of print 8 October 2013. ➤ Article. ➤ Return to reading.

[8] A good chart of the relationships within the genus and its close relatives can be found here. ➤ Chart. ➤ Return to reading.

[9] It’s a refreshing change, actually, to be able to be so precise. Scientists can be maddeningly imprecise, for all the millimeters and microns and eons. Getting the dates of the epochs to agree has been a chore. Did the Eocene end 34 million years ago? Or 38? It’s almost like a poker game. One scientist will say 34 million. Another will come along and say, “I match that and raise you 4 million.” In the end, I settled on what I hope are the latest thoughts on the subject. Precisely assigned dates, though, don’t seem to matter that much in geologic time. It’s more about the general look and feel of big chunks of it, where one chunk blends ever so slowly into the other, rather than about clean slices and precise fixes. After all, what’s really a million years or two, or maybe even three, in the great slow flow of the hundreds of millions of years of our Earth’s geology? At five, let’s talk. That’s it. Now back to Plumier... ➤ Return to reading.