XVI International Botanical Congess

Specimens of uppermost Permian conifers with small, helically arranged, multiveined leaves occur in the Guangxi Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province, and include the first anatomically preserved Paleozoic conifer fossils from South China. Shoots are irregularly branched with leaves up to 6 mm long and 3 mm wide, and an endarch eustele. Secondary tracheids show loosely aggregated, uniseriate circular bordered pits. Most rays are unicellular. Leaf traces diverge as a single bundle that divides several times, forming 7-8 parallel veins in leaves. Ground tissues of the pith, primary cortex and leaf comprise parenchyma with sclerotic nests. This distinctive plant reveals that conifers with wood and leaf venation reminiscent of the Podocarpaceae evolved in the Cathaysian flora by the end of the Paleozoic.