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Mespilodaphne precoushatta
Mespilodaphne precoushatta E.W. Berry Profess. Pap. U.S. Geol. Surv., 132(E): 91. 10 Apr 1924
- Name
- Mespilodaphne precoushatta
- Rank
- Species
- Generic Name
- [Genus] Mespilodaphne
- Authors (Pub.)
- Berry E. W.
- Publication
- An early Eocene florule from central Texas [1924/4]
- Journal
- Professional Papers / United States Geological Survey
- Volume
- 132
- Issue
- E
- Page number
- 91
- Year
- 1924
- Fossil Status
- leaves
- Stratigraphy
- Ypresian
- Location
- Sayersville, Bastrop County, Texas, USA
- Paleoregion
- America (North)
Data for Not defined
- Repository
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA
- Repository Number
- ?
- Diagnosis
- Leaves of medium size; relatively broad, oval in general outline, widest medianly, and tapering about equally to the apex and base. Apex cuneate. Base acute. Margins entire, rather regularly and evenly rounded. Texture coriaceous. Length about 9.25 centimeters, maximum width about 4.1 centimeters. Petiole long and stout, about 2 centimeters in length. Midrib stout, prominent. Secondaries mediumly stout and prominent, eight or nine somewhat irregularly spaced pairs; closely spaced and opposite in the base, less closely spaced and subparallel to about the middle, above which
they are about twice as far apart; they diverge from the midrib at angles of more than 45° and are camptodrome in the marginal region. Occasionally
a subsecondary runs midway between and subparallel to the adjacent secondaries in the apical part of the leaf, where the true secondaries are more widely spaced, and one basal secondary shows abnormal branching.
An apparently characteristic feature of this species is the crowding of the lower secondaries in the basal part of the leaf. The tertiaries are thin, transverse, and either percurrent or anastomosing.
