Chionanthus, D. ROYEN, 1753

Niccolini, Gabriele, Martinetto, Edoardo, Lanini, Benedetta, Menichetti, Elena, Fusco, Fabio, Hakobyan, Elen & Bertini, Adele, 2022, Late Messinian Flora From The Post-Evaporitic Deposits Of The Piedmont Basin (Northwest Italy), Fossil Imprint 78 (1), pp. 189-216 : 202

cf. Chionanthus

Pl. 4, Fig. 9

M a t e r i a l. A fossil fruit remain, although heavily compressed, could possibly to belong to Oleaceae (KovarEder et al. 2006) .

R e m a r k s. The single fruit remain has a few characters, but due to the thick coat, straight seed chamber and basal attachment it seems to be compatible with a “pyrenarium of Olea type ” from the family Oleaceae ( Bobrov and Romanov 2019) . However, the smooth external surface represents a contrasting feature not observed in extant Oleaceae (Chionanthus- included – ribbed pyrenarium) but allowed in two fossil-species from the European Miocene that were assigned to Chionanthus ( Gregor 1978) . In our opinion all these fossils (Ciabòt Cagna included) would be better compared with the extant Oleaceae to confirm assignment to this family.