Engelhardia macroptera

Martinetto, Edoardo & Macaluso, Loredana, 2018, Quantitative Application Of The Whole-Plant Concept To The Messinian - Piacenzian Flora Of Italy, Fossil Imprint 74 (1 - 2), pp. 77-100 : 92

Engelhardia macroptera whole - plant

Engelhardia (sect. Palaeocarya) macroptera (BRONGNIART) UNGER (fruit); Engelhardia orsbergensis (P.WESSEL et C.O.WEBER) JÄHNICHEN, MAI et H.WALTHER (leaf); Engelhardia (pollen) Pl. 1, Figs 8–11

M a t e r i a l. Fruit bracts from the Messinian of Monte Tondo (2 specimens) and Tossignano (5), from the Pliocene of Meleto (1) and Valle del Salto (1). Several fruits without bracts from two Zanclean localities: Ca’ Viettone and Sento. Leaflets from the pre-evaporitic Messinian of Pollenzo ( Bertini and Martinetto 2014: 1 specimen, lost), Palena ( Teodoridis et al. 2015a: 1 specimen), the Damarco bed of the evaporitic Messinian of Govone (3 specimens, Palaeontological Museum of Astigiano and Monferrato). Pollen grains of Engelhardia are frequent in several Messinian and Zanclean sites, but less abundant in the Piacenzian ( Bertoldi 1988, 1996, Bertoldi et al. 1994, Bertoldi and Martinetto 1995, Bertini 2010 and references therein).

R e m a r k s. The attribution to the living genus Engelhardia of rare fruits, fruit-bracts, leaves, and more frequently pollen, found scattered in several Italian sites of different ages, is the basis for the formulation of an Engelhardia macroptera Whole-Plant Concept for the Neogene of Italy, according to the line of evidence ISA. The fruits are small thin walled nuts, represented in the sandy sediments of a few Pliocene sites by just 1 to 3 specimens, isolated from any other Engelhardia remains, being more abundant only at the Ca’ Viettone site ( Martinetto and Vassio 2010, Martinetto et al. 2018). In fine-grained sediments the nuts are sometimes accompanied by characteristic involucres consisting of three apical triveined lobes and one basal, opposite small lobe enveloping the nut (3 to 5 mm in diameter). In Italy the involucres have been reported from Messinian ( Bertini and Martinetto 2008) and Pliocene sites ( Fischer and Butzmann 2000), as well as from Valle del Salto, a site of uncertain Pliocene or Pleistocene age ( Chiarini et al. 2009). Similar fruits in the European Oligocene and Miocene are accompanied by leaflets with finely serrate margins and a sessile asymmetrical base, which are assigned to Engelhardia orsbergensis ( Kvaček 2007, Teodoridis et al. 2015b). In Italy only a few leaflet specimens were reported, often with uncertain identification ( Bertini and Martinetto 2014, Teodoridis et al. 2015a, Cimino et al. 2016). In this paper we confirm the occurrence of leaflets in the Damarco bed of Govone ( Cimino et al. 2016) because of two new specimens that show diagnostic characters pointing to Engelhardia orsbergensis . Pollen grains identified as “ Engelhardia ” ( Bertini 2010, Magri et al. 2017 and references therein) or “ Engelhardia / Platycarya - type ” ( Bertoldi 1988, 1996, Bertoldi et al. 1994, Bertoldi and Martinetto 1995) can be tentatively referred to the same whole-plant on the basis of the line of evidence ISA.

Because all the members of the Engelhardia phylogenetic clade ( Zhang et al. 2013), including Alfaroa and Oreomummea, are trees of medium to large height, with opposite deciduous imparipinnate leaves and catkins of centimetre-sized nut-bearing bracts, the fossil Engelhardia macroptera whole-plant would also share this kind of habitus.