Pyracantha pseudococcinea, Striegler, 2021

Striegler, Ursula, 2021, New Leaf Species From The Upper Miocene Flora Of The Leaf-Bearing Wischgrund Clay (Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany), Fossil Imprint 77 (1), pp. 102-110 : 105-106

Pyracantha pseudococcinea sp. nov.

Text-fig. 4

2017 aff. Pyracantha Roemer sp. ; Striegler, pp. 26, 27, pl. 29, fig. 1 (Wischgrund).

H o l o t y p e. Inv.-No. 3470-3 ( Striegler 2017: pl. 29, fig. 1; Text-fig. 4a herein).

R e p o s i t o r y. Städtische Sammlungen Cottbus,

Departement of Geology, Cottbus, Germany.

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.

PFN002688.

E t y m o l o g y. Similar to leaf margin and venation comparable with P. coccinea , but outline ovate to elliptical instead of obovate as typical for P. coccinea .

D i a g n o s i s. Small leaves with a petiole, lamina narrowly ovate to elliptical, base obtuse to rounded, apex incomplete, obtuse to probably acute with indistinct mucro. Leaf margin irregularly flat crenate. Primary vein strong, secondaries semicraspedodromous, bifurcated in different places, forming narrow arches with each other and with intersecondary veins; tertiary veins usually branching obliquely from the secondary veins and are perpendicular to the primary vein; fine veinlets entering into the tooth sinus from the outer vein arches.

T y p e l o c a l i t y. Clay pit Wischgrund near Lauchhammer, Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany (devastated by Klettwitz opencast mine in the year 1987) .

T y p e h o r i z o n. Upper Miocene, Tortonian, Rauno Formation, Mühlrose Beds, floristic complex “Schipkau” (macrofloristic zone XIII according to Mai 1995), leafbearing clay of Wischgrund.

O c c u r r e n c e i n L o w e r L u s a t i a. Upper

Miocene, floristic complex “Schipkau”, clay pit Wischgrund.

M a t e r i a l. Wischgrund: 4 leaves: 3470-3, 11034,

18279-1, 18372-1.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Apex mostly not completely preserved; length approx. 16 to 33 mm, width 8.5 to 15 mm, ratio length/width approx. 1.9 to 2.45.

Teeth: 0.2 to 0.4 mm high, 1.1 to 1.4 mm wide, widening towards the base of the leaf (up to 3 mm) to entire margins, partly with glands.

Venation: primary vein almost straight, approx. 10 secondary veins on each side at an angle of 30° to 55° and at a distance of (1.5) 2.2 to 3.5 mm from the primary vein, tertiary veins forking and usually forming elongated areas; higher order veins reticulate (areoles size approx. 0.5 mm).

R e m a r k s. Typical of Pyracantha , leaves have a strong primary vein, irregular bifurcation of the secondaries, mostly perpendicular course of the tertiary veins to the primary vein, crenate margin and course of the veinlets mostly in the sinus of the teeth.

Since the venation and the formation of the margin agree very well with Pyracantha , especially with Pyracantha coccinea M.ROEM. , these leaves should be classified here as the new species Pyracantha pseudococcinea . There is no direct comparison with recent species. The leaf outlines of Pyracantha are rather obovate, or with obtuse to rounded apex and acute base. However, ovate leaf outlines with an obtuse to rounded base like the leaves of Wischgrund can also occur in some recent species. Crenate leaf margin is typical for most recent Pyracantha species. Apex with mucro is known from coccinea and crenulata (from Krüssmann 1978 and herbarium Striegler; Text-fig. 5 ).

Fossil Pyracantha leaves are known from the Oligocene to the Pliocene. The fossil species Pyracantha kraeuselii H.WALTHER in Mai and Walther (1978) is known from the Oligocene of the Haselbacher series (White Elster Basin; Walther 1980) as well as the late Oligocene of Enspel in the Westerwald region ( Köhler and Uhl 2014), and from Bechlejovice in České Středohoři Mountains ( Kvaček and Walther 2004). The leaves of Wischgrund cannot be compared with this species, because Pyracantha kraeuselii was erected with features of the epidermis, and differs in morphology from the leaves presented here, having acute base and obtuse apex. There is also no morphological correspondence with other fossil species. Fossil species are often compared with Pyracantha coccinea , which usually have obovate shape, such as Pyracantha cf. coccinea ( Givulescu 1984, 1990) from the upper Miocene of Chiuzbaia, Romania. Pyracantha coccinea described by Zastawniak (1980) from the Sarmatian of the Holy Cross Mts., Poland, is very narrow elliptic. P. nipponica TANAI ( Tanai 1976) from the Pliocene of Mogi, Japan, is widely elliptic.

Mai (2001a) describes carpological finds as Pyracantha acuticarpa (C.REID et E.REID) SZAFER for the floristic complex “Schipkau” from various sites in Lower Lusatia (Klettwitz, Welzow, Bröthen).

Figures

Text-fig. 4. Pyracantha pseudococcinea sp. nov. a: Holotype, Inv.-No. 3470-3, scale bar 5 mm; b: Inv.-No. 11034, scale bar 5 mm; c: Inv.-No. 18279, scale bar 5 mm; d: Inv.-No. 18372, scale bar 5 mm.

Text-fig. 5. Pyracantha coccinea M.ROEM. (Cottbus, herbarium Striegler). Scale bar 10 mm.