Urticaleoxylon, Wheeler & Manchester & Baas, 2023

Wheeler, Elisabeth A., Manchester, Steven R. & Baas, Pieter, 2023, A late Eocene wood assemblage from the Crooked River Basin, Oregon, USA, PaleoBios 40 (14), pp. 1-55 : 26

URTICALEOXYLON GEN. NOV.

Diagnosis— Growth ring boundaries marked by marginal parenchyma. Wood semi-ring-porous to diffuse porous, vessels solitary and in radial multiples of 2–3, rarely more. Perforation plates exclusively simple. Intervessel pits alternate, medium to large in horizontal diameter; vessel-ray parenchyma pits oval to horizontally elongate, simple or with reduced borders. Non-septate and septate fibers present. Axial parenchyma marginal, scanty paratracheal, vasicentric, and in latewood some aliform-confluent. Rays homocellular composed of procumbent cells to heterocellular with one (rarely more) marginal row of upright to square cells. Crystals, if present, in marginal ray cells.

Etymology— Name to indicate a wood with features found in urticalean families.