Pterocarya aff. fraxinifolia (POIR.) SPACH, 1834

Denk, Thomas, Sami, Marco, Teodoridis, Vasilis & Martinetto, Edoardo, 2022, The Late Early Pleistocene Flora Of Oriolo, Faenza (Italy): Assembly Of The Modern Forest Biome, Fossil Imprint 78 (1), pp. 217-262 : 234

Pterocarya aff. fraxinifolia (POIR.) SPACH, 1834

Text-fig. 9f, g

M a t e r i a l. Oriolo MSF 632, 632-1, 632-2.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Leaflet, fruits, leaflet oblong, 62 mm long, 30 mm wide, apex acuminate, secondary venation brochidodromous, margin bluntly serrate, fruit a winged nut, nut and lateral wings 15 mm wide.

R e m a r k s. It is difficult to decide, on the basis of fruit and leaflet morphology, when the fossil-species name P. limburgensis has to be abandoned in favour of the name of the modern Euxinian-Hyrcanian species, P. fraxinifolia . Middle Pleistocene material from Central Italy has previously been referred to as P. fraxinifolia ( Follieri 1958) . Population genetic studies of P. fraxinifolia ( Maharramova et al. 2018) suggest that the most recent common ancestor of P. fraxinifolia dates back to 0.91 Ma (1.94–0.04 Ma 95 % highest posterior density). Within the species, haplotypes of the Colchic-Caucasian region diverged at 0.69 Ma (1.94–0.04 95 % highest posterior density). This suggests that the leaflet and fruit from Oriolo might well represent early members of the modern species.

Figures

Text-fig. 9. a–e: Carya aff. minor. a: Terminal leaflet, Oriolo MSF 755. b: Oriolo MSF 755. c: Oriolo MSF 766. d: Oriolo MSF 768. e: Oriolo MSF 635. f, g: Pterocarya aff. fraxinifolia. f: Fruit, Oriolo MSF 632. g: Leaflet, Oriolo MSF 632a. h–j: Alnus aff. glutinosa subsp. barbata. h: Oriolo MSF 852. i: Oriolo MSF 850. j: Seed cone, Oriolo MSF 987. k–o: Corylus aff. avellana. k: Leaf, Oriolo MSF 841. l: Fruit, Oriolo MSF 1001. m: Fruit, Oriolo MSF 1022. n: Fruit, Oriolo MSF 1003. o: Fruit, Oriolo MSF 1022. Scale bars 50 mm (a–e, g–i), 10 mm (f, j–o).