Ephedra drewriensis Rydin, K.R.Pedersen, P.R.Crane et E.M.Friis

Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN000588

Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:588

Authors: C. Rydin, K. R. Pedersen, P. R. Crane & E. M. Friis

Rank: species

Reference: Rydin, C., Pedersen, K. R., Crane, P. R. & Friis, E. M. (2006): Former Diversity of Ephedra (Gnetales): Evidence from Early Cretaceous Seeds from Portugal and North America. – Annals of Botany 98(1): 123–140.

Page of description: 125

Illustrations or figures: figs 3A–K, 4A–D

Types

Original diagnosis/description

Fossil seeds and in situ pollen with their general organization and structure as in modern Ephedra (nucellus surrounded by integument and outer sclerenchymatous envelope, long micropylar tube extending beyond the envelope, papillae on inner apical part of envelope, pollen exine shed during germination), and with the following defining features:
Seeds small, 1.2 and 1.4 mm long, 0.8–0.9 mm wide, ellipsoid with rounded base and short pointed apex. Attachment scar indistinct, rounded, approx. 0.15 mm in diameter. Sclerenchymatic cells of outer seed envelope narrowly rectangular, up to 70 μm long, longitudinally arranged. Pollen approx. 50 μm long, 20 μm wide, narrowly ribbed, six or seven ridges on exposed side (inferred total of 12–14 ridges).

Etymology

Named from Drewry’s Bluff, where the fossils were found.

Stratigraphy

Cretaceous, Lower Cretaceous
Clayballs in Patuxent Formation, Potomac Group. Pollen Zone I, Early Cretaceous (early Aptian).

Locality

United States
Drewry’s Bluff on the James River, south of Richmond, Chesterfield County, VA.