Myrica from the plant assemblage of Pitsidia (Crete,late Miocene): putting the puzzle together

Abstract

This articledealswith auniquemass-occurrenceofMyrica fromPitsidia (southernCrete,Tortonian).Foliage, fruits and infructescences as well as male catkins are preserved as imprints, sometimes coated by an iron-rich encrustation exhibiting systematically relevant morphological details. Leaves are assigned to Myrica lignitum (Unger) Saporta, fruits sometimes even attached to their infructescence axis to M. ceriferiformis Kownas, and male catkins to M. cf. goeppertii Kohlman-Adamska, ZiembińskaTworzydło & Zastawniak. The taphonomic evidence indicates that the different plant organs derive from a single species of Myrica. The fruit size, the unbranched male catkins and mainly the fused filaments into a staminal column in the male flower, clearly pointing towards the section Cerophora (sensu Chevalier 1901) of the subgenus Morella. This points to a closer affinity to the American, African and Macaronesian species ofMyrica than to Asian ones.Myrica cerifera L. is supported as the most similar living relative in terms of gland density on the leaf surface, fruit morphology and male catkin form. The infructescence axes bearing M. ceriferiformis fruits are, however, longer with a higher number of fruits than inM. cerifera. Contrary toM. cerifera, inM. cf. goeppertii the catkins are somewhat longer and the staminal column is shorter than its floret bract.Myricawas probably a dominant taxon along withPinus in an early successional stage of near-coastal wetland forests in the surroundings of Pitsidia. In southeasternNorthAmerica, modern early successional Pinus palustris forests withMyrica cerifera as a differential species serve for comparison.