Quercus roburoides C.T. GAUDIN , 1859

Quercus roburoides C.T. GAUDIN, 1859 vel Q. pseudocastanea GÖPP., 1852

Pl. 3, Fig. 7

M a t e r i a l. A fragment representing nearly one third of the compressed leaf lamina in GLA20 (MGPT-PU141025).

D e s c r i p t i o n. Fragment of a simple leaf lacking base and apex; lamina probably obovate, l × w about 80 × 50 mm, ratio l/w about 1.6; margin simple serrate, teeth distinct, big, one above each secondary vein, apex blunt, sinus rounded, proximal and distal sides more or less straight; midvein straight; secondaries craspedodromous, regularly spaced, straight, arising at steeper angles towards apex than near base.

R e m a r k s. This leaf fragment is rather similar to Messinian leaves found at Monte Tondo (some 400 km east of Govone; Teodoridis et al. 2015a), which were assigned to Q. roburoides C.T.GAUDIN. Zidianakis et al. (2020 : pl. 12, fig. 1) described similar leaves from Pitsidia ( Crete, early Tortonian) as Q. pseudocastanea GÖPP. Leaves assigned either to Q. pseudocastanea or Q. roburoides are common in the younger European Neogene, and morphologically are very similar and variable ( Kvaček et al. 2020, Zidianakis et al. 2020). Therefore, single findings are difficult to assign to one or the other fossil-species.