The Whole Plant Reconstruction of Banisteriaecarpum Giganteum and Byttneriophyllum Tiliifolium - A Preliminary Report

Abstract

New records of fruits of Banisteriaecarpum giganteum (Göppert) Kräusel from the middle and late Miocene of Austria and Hungary and the Pliocene of Romania regularly associated with foliage of Byttneriophyllum tiliifolium (A. Braun) Knobloch & Kvaček confirm previous views of Czeczott, Ţicleanu and others that the two organs belong to a single plant related to Malvaceae s.l. and not to Mapighiaceae, as previously assumed by Schenk, Kräusel and Kirchheimer. According to the fruit morphology it is closely similar to Tarrietia Blume (tropical SE Asia and Africa, sometimes included together with Argyrodendron F. Muel. to Heritiera Dryand. in Ait.), with which it partly shares habitats (swamp to riparian forests) and decidedly differs in foliage (leaves strongly asymmetric ovate vs symmetric simple ovate to elongate or palmately compound) and climatic requirements (warm temperate vs tropical conditions). Its pollen has not yet been firmly discriminated. The fossils so far assigned to Tarrietia from Europe must be excluded from this genus: Tarrietia hungarica Rásky from the early Oligocene of Hungary was assumed by Andreánszky as legume fruits (Machaerites hungaricus (Rásky) Andreánszky), Tarrietia germanica Rüffle from the early Miocene of Germany, according to fine venation pattern, may also represent a monospermic legume pod