Gleditsia aff. caspica DESF., 1809

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 : 225-228

Gleditsia aff. caspica DESF., 1809

Text-figs 4h–k , 5a

M a t e r i a l. Oriolo MSF 787, 847, 910-1, 914-1, 915-1, 917-1, 918-1, 919-1, 920-1, 922-1, 923, 925, 926, 927, 928, 929, 931, 932, 933, 934, 935, Santa Lucia delle Spianate MSF n.n.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Leaflet, petiolate, petiole very short, lamina asymmetrical, broad to narrow elliptical, 12–27 mm long, 6–17 mm wide, secondary venation brochidodromous, small veins departing from secondary veins enter small crenulations, margin crenulate.

R e m a r k s. Givulescu (1979: 102, pl.41, fig.14) assigned a leaflet from Late Miocene strata of Chiuzbaia ( Romania), very similar to the material from Oriolo, to Gleditsia allemanica HEER, 1859 . According to Givulescu (1979), G. allemanica was present in middle and Late Miocene floras of Germany, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine. Recently, well-preserved leaflets of Gleditsia have been reported from Late Miocene and Pliocene localities in Poland and Germany. Worobiec and Worobiec (2019) reported Gleditsia europaea G. WOROBIEC, 2019 , from the Bełchatów Lignite Mine ( Poland), which they considered most closely related to the modern North American species G. aquatica MARSHALL, 1785 . From the Pliocene of Frankfurt, Kvaček et al. (2020) reported Gleditsia pliocaenica KVAČEK, TEODORIDIS et DENK, 2019 , which they compared to the western Eurasian G. caspica . The Pliocene specimens are very similar to the material from Oriolo.

Leaflets of Gleditsia differ from the Neogene extinct genus Podocarpium ( Herendeen 1992) by their crenulate margin.

Figures

Text-fig. 4. a–e: Parrotia aff. persica. a: Oriolo MSF 991 capsule. b: Oriolo MSF 994 endocarp. c: Oriolo MSF 654. d: Oriolo MSF 743. e: Oriolo MSF 678. f: Vitis sp. Oriolo MSF 838. g–k: Gleditsia aff. caspica. g: Oriolo MSF 920. h: Oriolo MSF 939. i: Oriolo MSF 787. j: Oriolo MSF 917. k: Oriolo MSF 925. Scale bars 10 mm (a, h–k), 5 mm (b), 50 mm (c–f).

Text-fig. 5. a: Gleditsia aff. caspica Oriolo MSF 935. b: Gleditsia caspica modern leaflet (NMNS Cleared Leaf Database specimen T 1484). c: Crataegus aff. monogyna Oriolo MSF 836. d: Mespilus aff. germanica Oriolo MSF 785. e, g, h: Pyracantha aff. coccinea. e: Oriolo MSF 627. g: Oriolo MSF 627. h: Oriolo MSF 684. f: Pyracantha coccinea modern leaf for comparison (NMNH 03695728). i: Pyracantha coccinea modern leaf for comparison (E00408203). j, k: Sorbus aff. domestica. j: Oriolo MSF 636. k: Oriolo MSF 824. Scale bars 10 mm (a–k).