Revision of the late Permian-Triassic pollen genus playfordiaspora Maheshwari & Banerji 1975

Abstract

The genus Playfordiaspora was proposed by Maheshwari and Banerji (1975) to accommodate trilete, "apparently monosaccate" miospores with very fine reticulate "flange". The present study reveals that it bears an enveloping single layered, endoreticulate, empty monosaccus without an in-fill. This records the occurrence of eusaccate pollen during Late Permian-Triassic from widely separated palaeogeographical areas of the Gondwanaland, Europe and America. Although, the affinity of Playfordiaspora is difficult to ascertain, a pteridospermous relationship seems probable on the basis of above morphographic features.