The Fossil Record of the Epacridaceae

Abstract

Fossil pollen and macrofossils of Epacridaceae are uncommon and are mainly known from Tasmania and other parts of south-eastern Australia. Most epacrids have generalized ericalean pollen although the pollen of some genera is distinctive. Ericalean pollen is known from the late Cretaceous. The first occurrence of Paripollis orchesispollen, which is consistent with some extant Epacrisspecies, probably means that Epacridaceae, and possibly the tribe Epacrideae, had differentiated by the Middle Eocene. The fossil record at present provides minimum ages of the first occurrences of major subfamilial taxa. Macrofossils of subfamily Richeoideae and of several morphotypes of the tribe Epacrideae are known from the Early Oligocene. Tribe Cosmelieae pollen and macrofossils are known from the Early Pleistocene, and are probably Sprengelia. The oldest Australasian fossils of tribe Styphelieae are leaves in latest Oligocene–Early Miocene parts of the Latrobe Valley coal. Endocarps identified as Epacridaceae from the Eocene of England need further investigation. Pollen of Monotoca, or a close relative, is known from the mid-Miocene. Possible Trochocarpaleaves occur in Late Oligocene/Early Miocene sediments, and fossil leaves indistinguishable from the extant Tasmanian rainforest species, T. gunniiand T. cunninghamii, are known from the Early Pleistocene in Tasmania.