Notes on Fossil Flowers

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Byttneria perplexans, from the Florissant Formation of Colorado appears to be betulaceous, and placed in the fossil genus Asterocarpinus.

Bombax

A flower assigned to Bombax sepultiflorum is recorded from the Oligocene of France [2]. An illustration is available [3].

Burretia

The genus Burretia is based on fossil flowers from the Miocene of Germany. It has been compared with Brownlowioideae, but it is argued that this is incompatible with its possession of parallel anthers, s protruding connective, and a calyx of 4 or 5 thick fused sepals, and that it may represent a Craigia or Tilia.

Eriothcca

A flower, assigned to the species Eriotheca prima, was found in the Fonseca Formation (Upper Miocene and Pliocene) in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais [1].

unnamed flower

Fossils of a flower with a (5 or) 10-loculate ovary and 5 lanceolate perianth segments (sepals?) have been found in the latest Cretaceous of New Zealand.

Referencees

Mello, Sant'anna & Bergquist, The palaeontological site of Fonseca, Minas Gerais state, Brazil (Fossil plants of the Tertiary of Brazil)
Saporta, Études sur La Végétation du Sud-Est de la France a :l'Êpoque Tertiaire, Ann. Sci. Nat. 4, 17: 272 (1862)
Les Périodes Végétales de l'Époque Tertiare, La Nature 5: 405 (1877)

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