Cinnamomoides, Seward, 1925

Halamski, Adam T., 2013, Latest Cretaceous leaf floras from southern Poland and western Ukraine, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 58 (2), pp. 407-443 : 428-429

Cinnamomoides ? sp. nov.

Fig. 9G.

Material.—A single fragmentary leaf GFAP JW/Fe1−1, 2 (part and counterpart) from Jędrzejów.

Description.—Blade attachment unknown. Laminar size notophyll (length of the preserved part 70 mm, width of the preserved part 57 mm; estimated total length> 90 mm), shape probably elliptic, medially asymmetric, base not preserved. Margin entire with obtuse apex angle, apex rounded. Primary venation pinnate. Major secondaries (four on the right side of the leaf, three on the left) eucamptodromous, their spacing increasing distally, attachment excurrent, angle of attachment constant, ca. 20 °. Minor secondaries attached to the first two pairs of secondaries, probably camptodromous. Two intersecondaries present on one side of the midvein between the third and the fourth pair of the main secondaries and parallel to them, one on the other side; one and zero, respectively, between the fourth pair of the secondaries and the apex. Intersecondaries short. A secondary marginal vein or thickening present (interpretation uncertain); this structure is not connected with the secondaries. Tertiaries mixed percurrent, their attachment angle constant, perpendicular. Quaternary venation percurrent, quinquenary venation reticulate.

Remarks.—As the proximal part of the leaf is lacking, a doubt subsists whether the general venation pattern is pinnate or acrodromous. The first interpretation is favoured and the leaf is included within the form group of cinnamomophylls (acrodromous venation is characteristic for rhamnophylls; Crabtree 1987: 727) and the form genus Cinnamomoides Seward, 1925 . The cinnamomophylls include both Laurales and forms of uncertain relationships ( Crabtree 1987: 716). “ Ficus ” ovata Newberry, 1895 from the Magothy Formation (Coniacian to Santonian; Newberry 1895: 70, pl. 24: 1–3) may serve as an example of the latter.

The natural affinities of Cinnamomoides ? sp. nov. are probably within the Magnoliidae, either Piperaceae or Lauraceae , although more distant analogues may be found within the Cornaceae s.l. and the form group of rhamnophylls sensu Crabtree (1987). The venation patterns of the Recent Piper bredemeyeri Jacquin, 1815 ( Piperaceae ) ( Burger 1971: fig. 11) and of the Eocene Laurophyllum conspicuum Hill, 1986 ( Lauraceae ; cuticles studied) ( Hill 1986: fig. 2B) are very similar to that of the described form. The marginal vein or marginal thickening is present in some representatives of both Lauraceae (e.g., Recent species of Cryptocarya and Pleurothyrium ; de Moraes 2007: 12; van der Werff 1991: 386) and Piperaceae (e.g., at least in the distal region of the lamina of Piper reticulatum Linnaeus, 1753 ; specimen F 1769884). Pronounced median asymmetry is uncommon in the Lauraceae ( Cinnamomum parthenoxylon [Jack, 1820] Meissner in de Candolle, 1864, figured by Koorders and Valeton 1913 –1918: fig. 209; Neolitsea levinei Merrill, 1918 , figured by Yu and Chen 1991: pl. 18: 12], while it is rather common in the Piperaceae (e.g., Piper carpinteranum de Candolle, 1897 ; P. biauritum de Candolle, 1897 ; and several other species; Burger 1971: figs. 10, 12), a character arguably related to the distichous phyllotaxy diagnostic for the Piperales (as opposed to spiral or opposite in the Laurales ; Doyle and Endress 2000; Soltis et al. 2005). The Piperaceae are characterised by strong variability of leaf form both among and within taxa ( Miquel 1844; Tebbs 1993). Recent Alangium densiflorum (Koorders and Valeton, 1899) Wangerin, 1910 ( Alangiaceae or Cornaceae s.l.) has asymmetric leaves with primary, secondary, and tertiary venation pattern very similar to Cinnamomoides ? sp. nov. (a typical morphotype, Koorders and Valeton 1913 –18: fig. 188; a brochidodromous morphotype, Wangerin 1910: fig. 4); it differs in the presence of a drip tip. Cretaceous “ Zizyphus ” areolatus Bell, 1957 (a rhamnophyll) from the Late Cretaceous Nanaimo Group of British Columbia has a similar primary and secondary venation pattern but the leaf is symmetrical and the tertiary venation is areolate ( Bell 1957).

Piperites tuscaloosensis Berry, 1919 from the Tuscaloosa Formation of Alabama (Coniacian?; Berry 1919) is similar to Cinnamomoides ? sp. nov. in camptodromous venation and median asymmetry. It differs in its acute apex. Neither in this case can the piperaceous affinity be proven. The type of the form genus Piperites Goeppert, 1854 , namely Piperites miquelianus Goeppert, 1854 from the Tertiary of Java ( Goeppert 1854: figs. 48, 49), is rather different, medially symmetric, with brochidodromous venation and no minor secondaries. Piperophyllum Kahlert, Rüffle, and Gregor, 2009, proposed as another form genus of the Piperaceae , is a nomen dubium given the uncertainty concerning the conspecificity between the neotype of Piperophyllum fibrillosum from the Santonian of Quedlinburg ( Germany) and Ceanothus fibrillosus Lesquereux, 1873 from the Palaeocene of Alabama. The epidermis of the former ( Kahlert et al. 2009: pl. 1: 5) is apparently consistent with its piperaceous affinities, whereas fine and dense tertiary venation ( Brown 1962: pl. 50: 5, 6, 10, 11) of the latter might rather suggest an affinity with the Rhamnaceae (see Jones and Dilcher 1980).

To sum up, Cinnamomoides ? sp. nov. is probably a new species characterised by pronounced median asymmetry and a eucamptodromous venation pattern with numerous minor secondaries. It is left in open nomenclature due to incomplete preservation. Owing to the absence of diagnostic cuticular characters its natural affinities, perhaps piperaceous or lauraceous, cannot be considered as certain.

Form group unknown

Genus Protohedycarya Rüffle, 1965

Type: Proteoides ilicoides Heer, 1871 sensu Rüffle, 1965; Upper Cretaceous, lower “Senonian”, Quedlinburg, Germany.