Flower power.

Many gymnosperm genes in today's plants look identical to their counterparts from millions of years ago, whereas angiosperm genes have accumulated mutations far more quickly. Flowers have long been implicated in the gymnosperms' demise due to timing: when the angiosperms began evolving into many new forms, the gymnosperms went into decline. But gymnosperms also comprise gnetales (like W. mirabilis), the palm-like cycads and ginkgo, also known as the maidenhair tree. They found that, just as some gymnosperms today look like living fossils, with the ginkgo, dawn redwood and Wollemi pine all bearing a striking resemblance to ancient fossil remains, gymnosperms also appear remarkably unchanged at the molecular level. [Extracted from the article]