Dr Paul Kenrick is principal researcher in paleobotany at the Natural History Museum.

The story of plants on land stretches back over half a billion years, with the fossil record offering a window into this deep past. This lecture traces that history in reverse—beginning today and travelling more than 380 million years back to the world’s first forests, a milestone that reshaped Earth. Fossils across the UK reveal earlier, simpler plants, many lacking leaves or roots, offering clues to how such structures first evolved. The Rhynie Chert in Scotland preserves extraordinary detail, from the rise of vascular tissues to the earliest plant–fungus partnerships. These discoveries illuminate the origins of our green world, yet key questions remain—most notably, what was the last common ancestor of all land plants?