Alnus merriamii

Name

Alnus merriamii

Rank

Species

Original spelling

merriami

Generic Name

[Genus] Alnus

Authors (Pub.)

Dorf E.  

Publication

Pliocene floras of California [1930/10]

Journal

Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington

Volume

412

Page number

80

Year

1930

Parent Taxon

[Genus] Alnus

Fossil Status

leaves

Stratigraphy

Pliocene

Location

Garberville, California, USA

Paleoregion

America (North)

Data for Syntypus

Repository

Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Repository Number

340-342

Diagnosis

Leaves broadly ovate to ovoid, narrowing gradually to a bluntly cuneate base and an obtusely acuminate tip, sometimes rather abruptly; length from 3.5 to 10 cm. (estimated), width from 2.5 to 7 cm. (figured specimen, pl. 8, fig. 6 is below the average size); petiole not preserved; midrib stout, straight or sometimes curving slightly near the base and tip; 9 to 12 pairs of prominent secondaries, opposite to sub-opposite, or in a few cases becoming alternate in the upper half of the leaf, diverging from the midrib at a 50° to 60° angle, straight, or in some cases curving slightly outward from the midrib and recurving slightly upward toward the margin, all terminating in the marginal teeth; middle secondaries giving off 1 to 3 strong tertiary branches from their abaxial sides always at distances more than halfway out from the midrib (usually much more); these tertiaries curving obtusely outward and terminating in the smaller teeth; other tertiaries regularly percurrent, closely set and at right angles to the secondaries; margin doubly serrate, the coarse, blunt teeth at the ends of the secondaries being the more prominent, while the finer serrations which terminate the tertiaries on the lower portions of the large teeth are less conspicuous . and more finely pointed; all teeth point slightly upward toward the apex of the leaf; texture rather firm.