Torreya bilinica SAPORTA et MARION

Kvaček, Zlatko, Teodoridis, Vasilis & Zajícová, Jana, 2015, Revision Of The Early Oligocene Flora Of Hrazený Hill (Formerly Pirskenberg) In Knížecí Near Šluknov, North Bohemia, Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae Series B 71 (1 - 2), pp. 55-102 : 60

Torreya bilinica SAPORTA et MARION

Pl. 1, Fig. 14–16, Pl. 2, Fig. 6–8

1866 Sequoia langsdorfii ETTINGSHAUSEN (non (BRONGNIART) HEER), p. 39, pro parte, pl. 13, fig. 9.

1876 Torreya bilinica SAPORTA et MARION , p. 221.

1984 Torreya bilinica SAPORTA et MARION ; Kvaček, p. 478, fig. 5–6.

Needles linear, up to 20 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, apex bluntly acute, with a single broad midrib, epidermis prosenchymatous, cells straight-walled, very narrow, ca. 10–15 µm wide and more than 250 µm long, with blunt cuneate ends, abaxially papillate near stomatal bands, with two stomatal bands much more strongly papillate, ca. 120 µm wide, elliptic outlines of stomata barely visible under the thick papillate cover, stomata monocyclic, longitudinally aligned, otherwise scattered, not forming lines, guard cells sunken, with thinly demarcated elongate stomatal pit surrounded by a ring of ca. 8 subsidiary cells forming the broadly oval apparatus up to 80 µm wide and 110 µm long.

D i s c u s s i o n. The fossil record of needles of Torreya from the Czech Republic was reviewed by Kvaček (1984) who used evidence from epidermal anatomy to confirm the view of Saporta and Marion (1976) that the fragmentary twig from the Oligocene site of Žichov in North Bohemia, which had been misidentified as Sequoia by Ettingshausen (1866), should belong to Torreya in spite of the aberrant blunt apex of the needles. Similar rounded apices as in other occurrences of Torreya bilinica at Seifhennersdorf and also at Knížecí appear in ancient representatives of the genus ( Torreya gracilis FLORIN, 1958 ) while the Neogene records (e.g. Kvaček et al. 2008) share the cuspidate apex with all living species ( Florin 1948, Li et al. 2001). The Palaeogene of North Bohemia (Žichov – Kvaček 1984, Kundratice – Kvaček and Walther 1998, Matrý – Akhmetiev et al. 2009, Roudníky – Kvaček et al. 2014, Knížecí – present paper) and Saxony (Kleinsaubernitz – Walther 1999, Seifhennersdorf – Walther and Kvaček 2007) is the limited area of this species, which is not known elsewhere.

M a t e r i a l. Fragmentary needles with cuticle structure, NM-G11508a, b, NM-G11509a, b, NM-G11510a, b, all with cuticle, EK 246.