Growth and reproductive biology of Joffrea speirsii gen. et sp. nov., a Cercidiphyllum-like plant from the Late Paleocene of Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Six kinds of angiosperm compression fossils are described from the Paskapoo Formation (Late Paleocene) at Joffre Bridge near Red Deer, Alta. Pistillate inflorescences with attached carpels, folliculate infructescences, seeds, seedlings, leaves, and shoots arc all assigned to Joffrea speirsii gen. et sp. nov. Crane and Stockey. Evidence for treating the different organs under a single binomial includes attachment of inflorescences and leaf petioles to long and short shoot systems, morphological intermediates between carpels and follicles, follicles preserved expelling seeds, seeds preserved during germination, stages in seedling development, similarity between seedling and adult foliage, and constant field association. Joffrea is similar in many respects to the widespread Upper Cretaceous and early Tertiary fossil Nyssidium arcticum (Heer) Iljinskaja. Comparison of Joffrea to the extant genera Cercidiphyllum Siebold et Zuccarini, Trochodendron Siebold et Zuccarini, and Tetracentron Oliver indicates a close relationship to Cercidiphyllum; and Joffrea is interpreted as an extinct representative of the family Cercidiphyllaceae. The fossil material clarifies morphological interpretations of the pistillate reproductive structures in extant Cercidiphyllum. The probable staminate inflorescences of Joffrea, are also similar to extant Cercidiphyllum. They are budlike and composed of 10–20 bracts, some of which have stamens in their axils. Pollen has not been recovered from the anthers. Pistillate inflorescences developed from axillary buds on the short shoots and were probably wind-pollinated. The production of numerous small winged seeds, epigeal germination, and the preservation of large numbers of in situ seedlings suggest that Joffrea speirsii and similar extinct Upper Cretaceous and early Tertiary species may have been "weedy" plants capable of rapidly colonizing open floodplain habitats.