MALVACEAE Jussieu, 1789

Pole, Mike, 2022, A vanished ecosystem: Sophora microphylla (Kōwhai) dominated forest recorded in mid-late Holocene rock shelters in Central Otago, New Zealand, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 1) 25 (1), pp. 1-41 : 13-16

Family MALVACEAE Jussieu, 1789

Genus PLAGIANTHUS Forster and Forster, 1776 or HOHERIA Cunningham, 1839a

Plagianthus sp. or Hoheria sp.

Figure 15

Material. Present in 5% of the shelters with dry vegetation. Shelter-033: LX2948, LX2950, LX2951; Shelter-040: LX3250, LX3259, LX3260; Shelter-068: SL 6480; Shelter-103: LX2520; Shelter-112: LX5516.

Remarks. Cuticle fragments with sessile branching (sometimes) stellate and simple glandular trichomes are Malvaceae . In the Central Otago context, based on previously described seed and bark remains ( Wood and Walker, 2008; McGlone and Wood, 2019), the cuticle is most likely Plagianthus or perhaps Hoheria . However, features to distinguish between these two based on cuticles are uncertain, and further identification is not made at this stage.

Figures

FIGURE 15. Malvaceae (Plagianthus sp. or Hoheria sp.) abaxial surface cuticle morphology (Transmitted light microscopy). A. Stellate trichome at upper right (LX2520, Shelter-103, scale bar equals 40 μm. B. Stellate trichome at upper right, group of stomatal complexes at lower left (LX2951, Shelter-33, scale bar equals 40 μm). C. ‘balloon’ trichome (LX2520, Shelter-103, scale bar equals 40 μm). D. two-armed trichome (LX2520, Shelter-103, scale bar equals 40 μm).