Paraengelhardtia eocenica Berry, 1916

Na, Yuling, Blanchard, Jane & Wang, Hongshan, 2019, Fruits, seeds and flowers from the Puryear clay pit (middle Eocene Cockfield Formation), western Tennessee, USA, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 49) 23 (3), pp. 1-57 : 23-24

Paraengelhardtia eocenica Berry, 1916

Figure 26

1916 Paraengelhardtia eocenica Berry , p. 186, pl. 17, figs. 2–5.

1987 Paraengelhardtia eocenica Berry , Manchester, p. 57, fig. 28A–D.

Description. “Winged nutlet with a small trilobed wing; sinuses between lobes of wing shallow to poorly developed, central lobe 16–23 mm long; lateral lobes diverging from central lobe at 25–40º, 14–19 mm long; width of fruit measured from outer margins of the two lateral lobes 19–31 mm; each lobe supplied with a midrib and two slightly less prominent lateral veins, one on each side of the midvein; lateral giving rise to marginal tertiary loops and joined by secondary veins with the primaries; areoles supplied with numerous freely ending veinlets; prophyllum relatively large, rounded, 15–17 mm high, extending from the base of the nutlet two-thirds to four-fifths the length of the wing, six or more major veins fan out from the base of the prophyllum, looping within the margin; nutlet spheroidal, 4–5 mm diam., stylar configuration unknown; pedicel not observed to be persistent on fruit.” (Manchester, 1987, p. 57)

Number of specimens examined. 4. UF15820- 004854; CONN-Q3-02.

Remarks. We illustrate one specimen reported by Manchester (1987, figure 28C) and one specimen from the CONN collection to demonstrate the characters of this species and its occurrence at the Puryear locality, Tennessee.

Berry (1916, p. 186, pl. 17, figures 2–5) established the fossil genus, Paraengelhardtia , and assigned four specimens from Puryear to the fossil species, P. eocenica . Manchester (1987, p. 57, figure 28A–D) illustrated four more specimens and noted that extensive collecting from the other Eocene clay pits of Kentucky and Tennessee has not yielded any specimens of this species.

This fossil species is similar to the extant fruits of Engelhardtia and Oreomunnea in nutlet size, and the presence of a trilobed wing and prophyllum. They differ in that the fossil fruit possesses shallow sinuses and short lobes.

Figures

FIGURE 26. Paraengelhardtia eocenica Berry, 1916: 1) UF15820-004854, specimen showing a small nutlet (n) impression and the prophyllum (p) extending almost four-fifths of the fruit wing (w). Scale bar equals 3 mm; 2) CONN-Q3-02, compressed specimen showing nutlet and fruit wing. Scale bar equals 3 mm.