Daphnogene sp.

Erdei, Bolgárka, Hably, Lilla, Héja, Gábor & Fodor, László, 2022, The Late Oligocene Macroflora Of Zsámbék, Central Hungary, Fossil Imprint 78 (1), pp. 298-309 : 300

Daphnogene sp.

Pl. 2. Figs 1, 3–4

M a t e r i a l. HNHM-PBO 2021.191.1., HNHM-PBO 2021.198.1., HNHM-PBO 2021.199.1., HNHM-PBO 2021.200.2., HNHM-PBO 2021.201.2., HNHM-PBO 2021.205.2.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Fragments of simple leaves. Length of lamina is up to 6.4 cm, width is up to 3.5 cm. Lamina is wide ovate in shape (Pl. 2, Figs 1, 3) or wide lanceolate (Pl. 2, Fig 4). Base is acute, apex is not preserved. Leaf margin is entire. Venation is suprabasal acrodromous. Suprabasal veins are perfect or imperfect. Midvein is strong. Secondaries reach the upper third of the lamina, forming loops. Interior secondary veins are dense. Tertiary veins emerge toward the margin, also forming loops.

D i s c u s s i o n. Based on the pair of strong suprabasal veins the leaves are assigned to Daphnogene . At Zsámbék the leaves are fragmented, but very probably belong to the species Daphnogene cinnamomifolia (BRONGN.) UNGER. On a morphological basis, Kvaček and Walther (1974) distinguished two forms of the species, the putative sun and shade leaves, forma lanceolate and forma cinnamomifolia . In the Zsámbék flora, the wide and slender leaves of Daphnogene may represent these forms, however, poor preservation of the fossil leaves does not allow precise identification. In the Egerian floras of Hungary, species of Daphnogene seem to be frequent members of wetland vegetation, but their remains are also recorded in mesophytic associations, e.g., in the flora of Pomáz ( Hably 1994). Daphnogene leaves are relatively decay resistant and have a higher chance of fossilization than leaves of most other taxa, even those in coarse-grained sediments with high carbonate content ( Hably and Szakmány 2006).