Cupressospermum saxonicum MAI emend. KUNZMANN

Dedicated in memory of the late FrantiŠek Holý (1935 - 1984), an eminent Czech palaeobotanist, Holý, František, Kvaček, Zlatko & Teodoridis, Vasilis, 2012, A Review Of The Early Miocene Mastixioid Flora Of The Kristina Mine At Hrádek Nad Nisou In North Bohemia (The Czech Republic), Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae Series B 68 (3 - 4), pp. 53-118 : 59-60

Cupressospermum saxonicum MAI emend. KUNZMANN

Pl. 4, figs 19-21, pl. 10, fig. 5

1960 Cupressospermum saxonicum MAI , p. 75, pl. 3, figs 1-5 (Olbersdorf Mine at Zittau).

1977a Cupressospermum saxonicum MAI ; Holý, p. 111 (Hrádek/N., Kristina Mine).

1978a Cupressospermum saxonicum MAI ; Holý, p. 2 (Hrádek/N., Kristina Mine).

1999 Cupressospermum saxonicum MAI ; Kunzmann, p. 92, pls 21-23, text-figs 18, 21.5 (several sites in Saxony, Bohemia, Rhineland – for details see Mai and Schneider 1988).

Leafy shoots cupressoid, leaves helically arranged, triangular, adpressed, with distinct resin channels, amphistomatic, stomata bicyclic, obliquely arranged corresponding to the structures from the German sites described by Kunzmann (1999). Seed cones ( Holý 1975, p. 15, pl. 2, figs 2-10) globular to slightly ellipsoidal, 15–20 mm long, composed of 25 to 30 helically arranged cone scales, umbo irregularly quadrangular, up to 6 mm wide with radial mounds, wavy on the margin, depression across in the centre or slightly below and a short sharp adpressed mucro slightly above. According to new observations by V. Teodoridis cone scales with irregularly quadrangular bract-scale area, ca. 6 mm wide, rarely transversally rhomboid to polygonal, with a transversal depression and a short sharp mucro. Seeds in situ rounded to transversally oval, 2.6–3.5 mm wide, 1.5–2.5 mm tall, dorsally convex, ventrally concave, embryo horseshoe-like curved to sub-circular, testa with a thick rim on the seed margin but lacking on the seed base.

D i s c u s s i o n: Seeds in situ recovered at the Kristina Mine correspond exactly with the dispersed seeds from the type locality Olbersdorf ( Mai 1960, p. 75, pl. 3, figs 1-5, text-figs 1-2). Holý (1975) was the first who recognized all macroscopic remains belonging to Cupressospermum saxonicum , originally based on dispersed seeds, and recognized this conifer at Herzogenrath among fossils described as Sequoia couttsiae by Menzel (1913, p. 26, pl. 3, figs 22-27). He also suggested its relationship to Geinitzia ENDLICHER , a notion confirmed by more recent detailed studies by Kunzmann (1999). The conifer occurs in Europe only, mainly in the Miocene (see Mai and Schneider 1988).

M a t e r i a l: Leafy shoots attached to seed cones, isolated seed cones and seeds, G 4591, 4593, 4594, 4595a, b, 4596, 8823, 8824, Gs 93-95.

Angiosperms

Nymphaeaceae SALISB.

Pseudoeuryale DOROFEEV