XVI International Botanical Congess

Upper Pennsylvanian conifer remains from Ohio include compression/impression and anatomically preserved specimens that represent a single species. Included are vegetative shoots, terminal ovulate cones or fertile zones, and possible pollen cones. Leaves on ultimate and penultimate shoots are simple. Stems have an endarch eustele, abundant wood and resin canals. Leaf cuticles show two adaxial bands of stomata and papillate subsidiary cells. Ovuliferous shoots are bilateral with a small number of vegetative scales and two or three ovules, and occur in the axils of helically arranged simple bracts. Shoot systems conform to the form genus Walchia, but the large number of characters displayed by the fossils reveal that it represents a new genus. This species is the oldest example of a reconstructed conifer plant, and it provides evidence for some of the ancestral character combinations for the group.