Fraxinus wilcoxiana (Berry) Call and Dilcher, 1992

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 : 27-28

Fraxinus wilcoxiana (Berry) Call and Dilcher, 1992

Figure 32

1916 Fraxinus wilcoxiana Berry , p. 340, pl. 101, fig. 5. 1992 Fraxinus wilcoxiana Berry ; Call and Dilcher, p.

253, pl. I, figs. 2–11; pl. II, figs. 15–21, 23; pl. III, figs. 24–32.

2013 Fraxinus wilcoxiana Berry ; Wang, Blanchard and Dilcher, p. 36, fig. 29.

Description. Fruits pedicellate; pedicel short, stout (1.5 mm long and 0.5 mm wide) to long (3.5 mm long and 0.3 mm wide); fruit flattened, bilaterally symmetrical, single-seeded samaras consisting of a striate, obovate fruit body with a laterally decurrent, apically extended wing; samara 18-28 mm long and 4-7 mm wide, subtended by a persistent synsepalous calyx with acute lobes free nearly to base; seed elliptic to obovate, 12–16 mm long and 3–4.1 mm wide; wing apex emarginate, acute, or rounded.

Number of specimens examined. 27. UF15820- 011008, 011010, 011016, 011014, 011001; CONNQ11-P1a.

Remarks. Call and Dilcher (1992) reported 22 specimens from the Puryear clay pit and three specimens from the Warman clay pit. Wang et al. (2013) re-illustrated two specimens which were listed by Call and Dilcher (1992) from the Warman clay pit. Here we illustrate additional specimens from the Puryear clay pit. Observation of fossil fruits collected from the Warman and Puryear clap pits indicates that dimensional variation is more or less comparable to that among samaras of a single tree of the extant species sampled, and that fossil samaras are short and somewhat narrow in comparison with fruits of several extant species investigated, suggesting that fruit evolution in Fraxinus has involved an increase in fruit size (Call and Dilcher, 1992).

Angiosperm Incertae Sedis - Flowers

Figures

FIGURE 32. Fraxinus wilcoxiana (Berry) Call and Dilcher, 1992: 1) UF15820-011008, specimen showing an emarginate wing apex; 2) UF15820-011010, specimen showing a well-demarcated seed and acute wing apex; 3) UF15820-011016, specimen showing a welldemarcated seed and rounded apex; 4) UF15820- 011014, specimen showing a narrow elliptic samara; 5) CONN-Q11-P1a, specimen showing a relatively large seed and a short, stout pedicel; 6) UF15820-011001, specimen showing a relatively long pedicel. All scale bars equal 3 mm.