Stutzeliastrobus

Name

Stutzeliastrobus

Rank

Genus

Authors (Pub.)

Herrera F. Shi G.-L. Knopf P. Leslie A. B. Ichinnorov N. Takahashi M. Crane P. R. Herendeen P. S.  

Publication

Cupressaceae conifers from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia [2016/11]

Journal

International Journal of Plant Sciences

Volume

178

Issue

1

Page number

24

Year

2016

Parent Taxon

[Family] Taiwaniaceae

Fossil Status

cones (female)

Type

Stutzeliastrobus foliatus

Diagnosis

Leafy shoots bearing spirally arranged, imbricated, scalelike leaves of a single kind. Each leaf has a single conspicuous, continuous, centrally placed longitudinal resin canal. Leaves are amphistomatic. The abaxial leaf surface is well developed, with stomata confined to two small lateral zones near the leaf base. The adaxial leaf surface is less well developed, and there are two lateral stomatal bands separated by a median nonstomatal region. Stomatal complexes haplocheilic and monocyclic. Seed cones solitary at the tips of the branchlets, bearing ca. 30–70 persistent, helically arranged, imbricated bract-scale complexes. Ovuliferous scale not separated from the bract and lacking a free tip. Each bract composed of a stalk and a foliate head. Bracts more or less woody, bilaterally symmetrical, rhomboidal in outline, with a cuneate base, a mucronate apex, and a smooth to minutely toothed margin. Each bract composed of sclerenchyma toward the abaxial surface but parenchymatous adaxially. Abaxial cuticle with a small stomatal zone proximally. There are two to four seeds per bract-scale complex. Based on the seed scars, seeds are attached on the adaxial surface at different distances along the long axis of the bract-scale complex. Generally, they are positioned near the midpoint of the bract scale complex in one or two rows. Seeds are winged and inverted. Seeds asymmetrical with the wing most prominently developed at the distal end. Seed wing developed from the integument. Seed sclerotesta thick and composed of anticlinal and periclinal stone cells. Endotesta thin, single layered, composed of elongated thin-walled cells.