Ailanthus tardensis HABLY

Kvaček, Zlatko & Teodoridis, Vasilis, 2011, The Late Eocene Flora Of Kučlín Near Bílina In North Bohemia Revisited, Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae Series B 67 (3 - 4), pp. 83-144 : 103

Ailanthus tardensis HABLY

Pl. 10, figs 9-10

2001 Ailanthus tardensis HABLY , p. 210, pl. 3, figs 1-7 (Nagybatony brickyard, Obuda).

2002a Ailanthus cf. confucii UNGER ; Kvaček, p. 224, pl. 2, fig. 6.

Mericarps with spindle-shaped entire-margined wing, acute to round at apex, cuneate at base, shortly stipitate, 21 to more than 32 mm long, 6–7 mm wide, with centrally positioned roundish seed 4 mm in diameter, venation poorly preserved except strong intramarginally positioned ventral vein supplying the seed and margin it in the middle of the seed.

D i s c u s s i o n: Incomplete fruits of Ailanthus recovered in the Kučlín diatomite match by their shape and the position of the seed that from the Upper Eocene of Célas ( Laurent 1899) and other similar fruits from the Middle Eocene of Messel ( Collinson 1988) and many other Tertiary localities (for the review see Corbet and Manchester 2004). Most of them belong to the A. confucii type. Hably (2001) recognized two more species: A. tardensis HABLY is distinguished by the ventral vein running intramarginally (contrary to A. confucii with marginal position of the ventral vein – Corbett and Manchester 2004) and roundish seed. A. gigas UNGER from Socka ( Unger 1850b) exceeds all other fossil fruits by double size. One of the mericarps from Kučlín clearly shows the intramarginal ventral vein suggesting that the population from the Eocene of Kučlín is conspecific with that of the Hungarian Oligocene. It stresses further common features of the two floras containing Doliostrobus and many other common elements.

M a t e r i a l: NMG7898a,b, G 8633a, b, DB KUC 77.