Pyracantha aff. coccinea M.ROEM., 1847

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 : 228

Pyracantha aff. coccinea M.ROEM., 1847

Text-fig. 5e, g, h

2009 Pyracantha coccinea M.ROEM. ; Martinetto, p. 27, fig. 3 (6).

M a t e r i a l. Oriolo MSF 627-1, 684-1.

D e s c r i p t i o n. Leaf, simple, petiolate, lamina elliptic, 30–48 mm long, 20–21 mm wide, base acute, apex bluntly acuminate, secondary venation mixed, tertiary veins running perpendicular or oblique to secondary veins, margin dentate, teeth appressed, with long basal and short apical side, tooth type rosoid.

R e m a r k s. The morphological variation of the fossil leaves (narrow and wide elliptic, mixed secondary venation, margin) matches the one found in the modern species P. coccinea ( Text-fig. 5f, i ). The modern species is native to southeastern Europe and western Asia and is ecologically very flexible. It can be an element of dry forests with Zelkova , Carpinus orientalis , or of woody associations on fixed sand dunes with Malus , Hippophae , Berberis , Mespilus , and Paliurus in western Georgia ( Denk et al. 2001). In Italy, fossil leaves and fruits of P. coccinea were reported from the early Middle Pleistocene of Pianico-Sellere ( Martinetto 2009).

Figures

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).