Pazlia, Friis & Crane & Pedersen, 2018

Friis, Else Marie, Crane, Peter R. & Pedersen, Kaj Raunsgaard, 2018, Extinct Taxa Of Exotestal Seeds Close To Austrobaileyales And Nymphaeales From The Early Cretaceous Of Portugal, Fossil Imprint 74 (1 - 2), pp. 135-158 : 140

Genus Pazlia gen. nov.

T y p e. Designated here. Pazlia hilaris gen. et sp. nov.

P l a n t F o s s i l N a m e s R e g i s t r y N u m b e r.

PFN000090 (for new genus).

E t y m o l o g y. From Greek παζλ: jigsaw puzzle, for the distinct jigsaw puzzle-like outline of the facets of the exotestal cells.

G e n e r i c d i a g n o s i s. Isolated seeds occurring singly. Seeds small, anatropous, bitegmic and exotestal. Seeds bilaterally symmetrical with dorsiventral plane of symmetry. Seed surface smooth without longitudinal ridges. Raphe distinct, seen externally as a raised, rounded ridge that extends from hilum to the chalazal end opposite the micropyle. Hilum and micropyle separated by a broad zone of testal sclerenchyma. Hilar scar large, narrowly elongate with abundant sclerenchyma tissue beneath the scar and lacking a hilar rim. Micropyle formed by the inner integument (tegmen) and marked on the seed surface by a transverse slit through the outer integument (testa) adjacent to the hilar scar. Testa formed from an outer layer (exotesta) of palisade-shaped sclerenchyma cells and an inner thin layer of thin-walled parenchyma cells (mesotesta/ endotesta). Palisade-shaped cells of exotesta with evenly thickened anticlinal walls and a straight lumen. Anticlinal walls of the exotesta cells strongly undulate toward the inside and toward the outside, resulting in stellate-undulate facets and a jigsaw puzzle-like pattern on the seed surface. Tegmen thin.

C o m m e n t s o n t h e g e n u s. Seeds assigned to Pazlia are similar to seeds of Gastonispermum , Pazliopsis , Reyispermum , Lusitanispermum and Silutanispermum in the shape of the exotestal cells, but seeds of Pazlia are much smaller than those of Gastonispermum , Lusitanispermum and Silutanispermum , and they also have a strong expanded sclerenchyma tissue under the hilar scar. Seeds of Pazlia further differ from those of Gastonispermum , Reyispermum , Lusitanispermum and Silutanispermum in details of the micropyle and in the elongated hilar scar, but in these features are more similar to seeds of Pazliopsis . In details of the seed coat, and also the large ovate hilar scar, seeds of Pazlia also resemble those of extant Illicium (Illiciaceae) , but lack the characteristic strophiole seen in the extant genus.