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The fossil plant images presented here are the result of a paleobotanical investigation of the McAbee flora located near Cache Creek, British Columbia. A group of deposits referred to as the Okanogan Highlands preserved a diverse temperate/warm temperate forest that existed approximately 50 million years ago. Modern forests in temperate Western North America are not nearly as diverse as these forests were. The best living analogues are the diverse hardwood dominated forests found today in the NE United States and parts of China. A minimum of 100 different taxa are found as leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and pollen.

Both mega and microfossils have been utilized to compile as complete a representation of the flora as possible. Paleobotanical methods have been applied to the McAbee flora to infer the climate when the flora existed. This analysis suggests a temperate climate, slightly cooler and wetter than other middle Eocene Okanogan Highlands sites, reflected in the fact that McAbee lacks thermophilic elements such as Sabal (palm), found at Princeton or Ensete(banana) and Zamiaceae (cycad) found at Republic, WA. Despite these differences, McAbee appears to be a good fit overall for the Okanogan Highlands floral construct and has unique elements that expand our knowledge of the Early Middle Eocene flora of the Pacific Northwest.

More information on McAbee can be read in the McAbee section of the Evolving Earth Foundation Web site.