The cones of Walkomiella australis (Fiest.) Florin

Abstract

Male and female cones of Walkomiella australis (Feist.) Florin is described. The large number of microsporangia borne on the scales of the male cones show a closer relationship to the male cone Squamella of the Glossopteridales or to the Cycadales than to the microsporophylls of families of conifers that exist today. They are also distinct from the arrangement found in Early Permian Lebacniaceae, or in the Voltziaceae which followed in the Late Permian, and represent a most interesting evolutionary stage in the Coniferae. Female cones have papery scales with apparently single seeds, resembling the arrangement in Araucariaceae, but they are fundamentally “tuft flowers” and once again distinct from the Lebachiaceae or the Voltziaceae.