Browniea serrata (NEWBERRY)

Manchester, Steven R., 2014, Revisions To Roland Brown’S North American Paleocene Flora, Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae Series B 70 (3 - 4), pp. 153-210 : 176-177

Browniea serrata (NEWBERRY) MANCHESTER et HICKEY

Browniea serrata (NEWBERRY) MANCHESTER et HICKEY (2007) is a species of an extinct genus related to extant Camptotheca ( Nyssaceae ) that was common in the Paleocene of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. The leaves, formerly called Eucommia serrata (NEWBERRY) BROWN (1962) , have pinnate venation with semicraspedodromous secondaries, and regularly serrate margins, and they bear microscopic impressions of probable calcium oxylate idioblasts like the leaves of modern Camptotheca . At many localities, these leaves co-occur with globose multi-fruited infructescences resembling those of Camptotheca . The spindle-shaped fruits, which Brown referred to as “Probably fruits with remnants of calyces” (1962, pl. 67, figs 11, 12, 17) are similar to those of Camptotheca in shape and epigynous calyx, but the calyx is much better developed in the fossil taxon. Flowers with attached stamens yield pollen of Caprifoliipites paleocenicus POCKNALL et NICHOLS ( Manchester and Hickey 2007). A specimen illustrated by Brown as “calyx of a flower (pl. 67, fig. 46), matches that of Browniea . Additional specimens were illustrated as Amelanchites similis (NEWBERRY) MCIVER et BASINGER (1993 , pl. 29, figs 1–5; pl. 30, fig. 3) from Ravenscrag Butte, Saskatchewan, Canada; Early Paleocene, although the type of that species actually belongs to Celtis aspera (NEWBERRY) MANCHESTER, AKHMETIEV et KODRUL.

Icacinaceae

Unequivocal fruits of Icacinaceae occur in the North American Paleocene, but corresponding foliage has not yet been identified. The specimen illustrated as “impression of a seed showing pits arranged in longitudinal rows” ( Brown 1962, pl. 67, fig. 26), and specimens from other Paleocene localities in Wyoming and Montana, have been assigned to the extinct genus Palaeophytocrene , as Palaeophytocrene piggae Stull , and clearly belong to the tribe Phytocreneae ( Stull et al. 2012) which is now restricted to the Old World tropics.

Reticulately ridged fruits formerly placed in Prunus corrugis R. W. BROWN were transferred to Icacinicaryites corruga (R. W. BROWN) PIGG , MANCHESTER et DEVORE (large fruit— 3.8 cm long), and Icacinicaryites linchensis PIGG , MANCHESTER et DEVORE (smaller fruits— 1.5–2.7 cm long). Along with anatomically preserved silicified specimens given different taxonomic assignments these fruits conform to those of the icacinaceous tribe Iodeae (Pigg et al. 2008) .

Bignoniaceae

Seeds of Bignoniaceae . Brown (1962 pl. 68, figs 17–22) illustrated several biwinged seeds from a single locality in SE Montana. These small seeds have a triangular central body, with two elongate strap-like wings arising at 90° to the vertical seed axis. The wings are membranous, and without veins, and conform well with the pattern of seeds in the Bignoniaceae .

Elaeocarpaceae