A review of the platanaceous woods from the Eocene paratropical rainforest of south-east England

Abstract

Small diameter pyritized axes, commonly referred to as ‘twigs’, of fossil platanaceous wood are described from the Lower Eocene London Clay Formation of south-east England. These twigs are characterized by solitary vessels with scalariform perforation plates, opposite intervessel pits, and tall, multiseriate rays that dilate in the phloem region. The wood anatomy supports close relationship to members of extant Platanaceae and the material is placed in the organ genus Plataninium Unger erected for fossil woods with close anatomical similarity to Platanus L. This material supplements the fossil record of platanaceous type wood from the Eocene London Clay and documents the first record of Plataninium decipiens Brett in the twig flora. © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 139, 181‐191.