The Middle Triassic Megafossil Flora of the Basin Creek Formation, Nymboida Coal Measures, New South Wales, Australia. Part 10. Miscellaneous Foliar (Rochipteris) and Fertile Genera (Fraxinopsis, Tomiostrobus, Umkomasia, Weltrichia)

Abstract

Miscellaneous megafossil plants are described from two quarries in the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) Nymboida Coal Measures in northern New South Wales, Australia. These include the isoetalean lycopod Tomiostrobus; the petriellalean leaf Rochipteris, the fertile megasporophyll Umkomasia and associated dispersed seeds; the male bennettitalean Weltrichia, and a possible gnetalean winged seed Fraxinopsis. The Nymboida Flora, with Dicroidium the dominant element, is the most intensively collected and best documented flora of the Gondwana Australian Triassic with 60 genera and 121 species described in ten publications. The flora is of global importance in highlighting the re-establishment of peat-forming plant communities some 10 million years after the end-Permian extinction event.