Pazliopsis, Friis & Crane & Pedersen, 2018

Friis, Else Marie, Crane, Peter R. & Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaard, 2018, Extinct Taxa Of Exotestal Seeds Close To Austrobaileyales And Nymphaeales From The Early Cretaceous Of Portugal, Fossil Imprint 74 (1 - 2), pp. 135-158 : 143

Genus Pazliopsis gen. nov.

T y p e. Designated here, Pazliopsis reyi gen. et sp. nov.

P l a n t F o s s i l N a m e s R e g i s t r y N u m b e r.

PFN000092 (for new genus).

E t y m o l o g y. From όψις (Greek: appearance, aspect) to indicate close similarity in morphological appearance to seeds of Pazlia .

D i a g n o s i s. Fruit thin-walled, one-seeded. Seeds small, anatropous, bitegmic and exotestal. Seeds bilaterally symmetrical with dorsiventral plane of symmetry. Seed surface with faint longitudinal ridges. Raphe indistinct externally. Hilum and micropyle separated by broad zone of testal sclerenchyma. Hilar scar large, elongate and prominent with expanded testal tissue beneath the hilar scar, lacking a hilar rim. Micropyle formed by the inner integument (tegmen) and marked on the seed surface by a transverse slit through the outer integument (testa) adjacent to the hilar scar. Testa formed from an outer layer (exotesta) of palisade-shaped sclerenchyma cells and an inner thin layer of thin-walled parenchyma cells (mesotesta/ endotesta). Palisade cells of exotesta with evenly thickened anticlinal walls and a straight lumen. Anticlinal walls of palisade-shaped sclerenchyma strongly undulate toward the inside and toward the outside, resulting in stellate-undulate facets and a jigsaw puzzle-like pattern on the seed surface. Tegmen thin.

C o m m e n t s o n t h e g e n u s. Seeds assigned to Pazliopsis are similar to those of Pazlia in their large hilar scar with expanded sclerenchyma tissue below. However, the sclerenchyma cells in Pazlia radiate perpendicular to the seed surface and is much thicker than in Pazliopsis . Pazliopsis also differs from Pazlia , as well as the other taxa described here, in the ribbed seed surface. A large, distinct hilar scar, as seen in Pazliopsis , also occurs in the seeds of Illicium , but Pazliopsis lacks the strophiole that is typical of Illicium species.