Podozamites gracilis Arber, 1917

Pole, Mike, 2019, Middle-Late Jurassic plant assemblages of the Catlins coast, New Zealand, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 51) 23 (3), pp. 1-48 : 30-31

Podozamites gracilis Arber, 1917

Figure 19

1917 Podozamites gracilis Arber , p. 54, figs. 11, 12.

Material. Curio Bay: LX1084, LX109, Little Beach- 04: LX1012.

Description. Shoots> 70 mm long with alternately inserted leaves, c. 5–19 mm apart, possibly loosely distichously flattened. Leaves bifacially flattened, 33–46 mm long, 2–6 mm wide, bases narrowly acute, apices acute. Venation indistinct, but apparently parallel, with 3 veins in the narrowest leaves, to possibly 10 veins across the widest.

Remarks. Arber (1917) described Podozamites gracilis from Curio Bay. As the name suggests, the leaves were remarkably narrow, 4–5 mm wide, and in this width, there were 5–7 parallel veins. This is one of the narrowest Podozamites species known, being distinctly smaller than the typical Triassic-Jurassic Podozamites of the Northern Hemisphere (e.g., Pole et al., 2016). Some of the smallest species do overlap. Podozamites lanceolatus illustrated from the Late Triassic of China (Li, 1964, fig. 20.3) comes close.

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Figures

FIGURE 19. Podozamites gracilis 1. LX1084, Curio Bay; 2. LX1012, Little-03; 3. LX1084, Curio Bay. All scale bars equal 10 mm.