Pazlia E.M.Friis, P.R.Crane et K.R.Pedersen

Plant Fossil Names Registry Number: PFN000090

Act LSID: urn:lsid:plantfossilnames.org:act:90

Authors: E. M. Friis, P. R. Crane & K. R. Pedersen

Rank: genus

Reference: Friis, E. M., Crane, P. R. & Pedersen, K. R. (2018): Extinct taxa of exotestal seeds close to Austrobaileyales and Nymphaeales from the Early Cretaceous of Portugal. – Fossil Imprint 74(1–2): 135–158.

Page of description: 140

Type

Original diagnosis/description

Isolated seeds occurring singly. Seeds small, anatropous, bitegmic and exotestal. Seeds bilaterally symmetrical with dorsiventral plane of symmetry. Seed surface smooth without longitudinal ridges. Raphe distinct, seen externally as a raised, rounded ridge that extends from hilum to the chalazal end opposite the micropyle. Hilum and micropyle separated by a broad zone of testal sclerenchyma. Hilar scar large, narrowly elongate with abundant sclerenchyma tissue beneath the scar and lacking a hilar rim. Micropyle formed by the inner integument (tegmen) and marked on the seed surface by a transverse slit through the outer integument (testa) adjacent to the hilar scar. Testa formed from an outer layer (exotesta) of palisade-shaped sclerenchyma cells and an inner thin layer of thin-walled parenchyma cells (mesotesta/endotesta). Palisade-shaped cells of exotesta with evenly thickened anticlinal walls and a straight lumen. Anticlinal walls of the exotesta cells strongly undulate toward the inside and toward the outside, resulting in stellate-undulate facets and a jigsaw puzzle-like pattern on the seed surface. Tegmen thin.

Etymology

From Greek παζλ: jigsaw puzzle, for the distinct jigsaw puzzle-like outline of the facets of the exotestal cells.