Amber Forest
Thanks to the inclusions, researchers can determine the trees responsible for the resin at that time. Analyses of the pollen grains trapped in Baltic amber have shown that they originate from pine trees.
In addition to the pine forests there was a large stock of oaks at that time. This is proven by star hairs, which are found in 50% of all inclusions of Baltic Amber. Although pines and oaks were the dominant tree species, there were also beech, chestnut, maple and other tree species. Analyses have shown that the mother trees of the Dominican amber are not conifers, but deciduous trees (butterfly blossom plants & legumes). In the case of Sicilian amber (simetite), it is also believed that the resin producer was a deciduous tree.
Also, today there are forests with strongly resinous trees e.g. in Madagascar, Sumatra, Java or New Caledonia. Researchers say that every resin that is produced in the forests can become amber. Carsten Gröhn and Max J. Kobbert describe this very clearly in their book (Pflanzen im Bernstein, page 27) with its wonderful photographs; "Only the appropriate external conditions must prevail, i.e. the resin must be promptly exposed to the protective water or mud before weathering and then stored for over a million years without interruption under exclusion of air, preferably under pressure deep in the sediments of a lake or sea".
Literature:
Ulf Erichson / Wolfgang Weitschat, Baltischer Bernstein, 2008 Deutsches Bernsteinmuseum Ribnitz-Damgarten
Carsten Gröhn / Max J. Kobbert, Pflanzen seit der Saurierzeit eingeschossen in Bernstein, 2017 Wachholtz Verlag - Murmann Publishers, Kiel/Hamburg
Michael Ganzelewski / Rainer Slotta, Bernstein - Tränen der Götter. 1997, Verlag Glückauf, Essen
Günter Krumbiegel / Brigitte Krumbiegel, Faszination Bernstein, 2001 Goldschneck-Verlag, Korb