Magnolia cf. virginiana Linnaeus, 1753

Stults, DZ & Axsmith, BJ, 2015, New plant fossil records and paleoclimate analyses of the late Pliocene Citronelle Formation flora, U. S. Gulf Coast, Palaeontologia Electronica (New York, N. Y.: 1991) 2 (6), pp. 1-35 : 14

Magnolia cf. virginiana Linnaeus, 1753

Figure 5.3–5.4

Description. Three specimens of Magnolia cf. virginiana leaf have been recovered from the Perdido Park site. These leaves are simple, petiolate, with marginal petiole attachment. They are either elliptical or obovate. The most complete obovate specimen is 12 cm long, the most complete elliptical specimen is 11.6 cm long and 3.0 cm wide (L:W ratio 4:1). Margins are unlobed, entire. Bases are acute, decurrent. Apices are acute, straight. Primary venation is pinnate. Secondary venation is simple brochidodromous, mostly decurrent, irregularly spaced, angles consistently ~ 30°. A perimarginal secondary vein is evident. Tertiary veins are irregular reticulate as are the quaternary and quinternary veins ( Figure 5.4 ).

Site occurrence. Perdido Park.

Remarks. Magnolia virginiana occurs in swamps and bogs, mostly along the coastal plain from New Jersey to lower Florida and westward to east Texas, and also appears in Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New York. The family Magnoliaceae appears early in the macrofossil record, in existence as early as 93.5 to 110 m.y.a. (Tao and Zhang, 1992; Frumin and Friis, 1996, 1999). Fossil and molecular evidence suggest that the clade containing M. virginiana diverged in the early Oligocene. The genus Magnolia appears in western North America as early as the upper Paleocene, and in the southeast in the middle Eocene ( Grote, 1989; Manchester, 1994; Azuma et al., 2001; Nie, et al., 2008). Seeds of Magnolia occur in the Miocene Brandon Lignite of Vermont, and there is a fruit record from the Miocene Clarkia site of Idaho (Tiffney, 1977; Rember, 1991).

Figures

FIGURE 5. Representative Magnoliaceae and Oleaceae from the Citronelle Formation. 1. Liriodendron cf. tulipifera partial leaf (UF 19315–062075), scale bar equals 1 cm. 2. Close-up of Figure 5.1 Liriodendron leaf basal portion showing simple agrophic veins at arrows, scale bar equals 5 mm. 3. Magnolia cf. virginiana leaf (UF 19210–062076), scale bar equals 1 cm. 4. Close-up of Figure 5.3 Magnolia leaf showing details of fourth and fifth order veins, scale bar equals 5 mm. 5. Fraxinus sp. fruit (UF 19413–062077), scale bar equals 5 mm.