Taxodium dubium (STERNB.) HEER, 1853

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

? Taxodium dubium (STERNB.) HEER, 1853

Pl. 1, Figs 1–6

2015? Taxodium dubium (STERNB.) HEER ; Hably et al., p. 291, fig. 4: 3, 4.

M a t e r i a l. HNHM-PBO 2021.160.1.–2021.179.1.,

HNHM-PBO 2021.207.1.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Leafy shoots with taxodioid type leaves. Leaves are helically arranged, partly distichous and appear very shortly petiolate. Length and width of leaves are up to 12 mm, and 1.5 mm, respectively. Lamina is linear in shape, partly ovate. Leaf apex is acute, often mucronate. Base is slightly rounded to acute. Margin is entire.

D i s c u s s i o n. The systematic affinity of the taxodioid leaf remains could not be corroborated by cuticular studies. In the quite similar flora of Környe, gymnospermous twigs were identified partly as Glyptostrobus ENDL. and partly as? Taxodium ( Hably et al. 2015) . Since seeds and cones assignable to Glyptostrobus were recorded in the flora of Környe, gymnosperm shoots with cupressoid and cryptomerioid leaf morphotypes were assigned to the Glyptostrobus genus. Shoots with taxodioid type leaves in Környe, which seem identical to those described from Zsámbék, were assigned to Taxodium with a question-mark.

In the flora of Zsámbék shoots with cupressoid or cryptomeroid leaf morphotypes were not recorded, neither were reproductive structures which could assist in identification of the vegetative remains. Leaves found in Zsámbék are of the taxodioid morphotype, linear or partly ovate, similar to those of Taxodium and Sequoia ENDL. , but with a much broader lamina than the linear taxodioid type leaves of Glyptostrobus ( Farjon 2005, LePage 2011). On short shoots of modern Glyptostrobus trees, somewhat bilaterally flattened leaves may also develop and are arranged spirally and in a partly distichous manner ( Farjon 2005). Unfortunately, leaf bases are only faintly visible and details of leaf attachment, which may aid identification ( LePage 2011), are unclear in the shoots from Zsámbék. Until reproductive structures or cuticular details corroborate a more formal identification, the leaves from Zsámbék, are considered as quite comparable to those from Környe ( Hably et al. 2015), and are treated similarly and assigned to? Taxodium .