Locality
USGS 11611
Lat. 60° 01' 46"N Long. 165° 22' 42"W
Nunivak Island (C-1) Quad.
Description
Leaf: simple; asymmetrical; ovate to wide ovate, lamina more inflated one side of the midvein than the other; apex obtuse; base truncate, decurrent to the petiole; margin entire at base finely dentate above, teeth small (approximately 1 mm), apices obtuse, sinuses very shallow rounded, two ranks of teeth, one formed at the termination of the secondary veins the other at the termination of abmedial secondary branches; venation fundamentally suprabasal marginal imperfect actinodromous but with a very strong pinnate appearance; primary midvein straight or slightly curved becoming zigzag in the apical half of the lamina; pectinal veins arising at angles of 40° on one side and 50° on the other, more or less straight or slightly curved; pectinal abmedials given off at angles of 50-60° on the pectinal which forms an angle of 50° to the midvein, and 40° on the other pectinal, abmedials straight or nearly so; superior secondary veins arising from the midvein parallel to the pectinals often branching abmedially up to three times near the margin, the frequency of branching increasing basally; tertiary veins percurrent, usually simple occasionally forked, convex, meeting the secondaries at an acute angle or approximately 90°; fourth order veins indistinct.
Remarks
The asymmetry of this hamamelid-like leaf may be real or it may have been produced during fossilization. The preservation is rather poor but there is sufficient detail to enable it to be compared with the similar 'Platanus' reynoldsi as illustrated by Bell (1949; Plate 37, Fig. 2 or Plate 31 only) from the Paleocene of Western Alberta. Specimen USGS 11611.5 matches the description by Bell (1949, p. 59) almost exactly. The main difference is that the number of secondary veins exceed the stated maximum for 'P.' reynoldsi which is seven. The form is probably allied to 'Tilia' cretacea and 'Vitis' venusta.