Flowers and fruits of Princetonia allenbyensis (Magnoliopsida; family indet.) from the Middle Eocene Princeton chert of British Columbia

Inflorescences, flowers, and immature or abortive, mature and senescent fruits of Princetonia allenbyensis Stockey are described from the permineralized plants of the Princeton chert of southern British Columbia. Anatomical similarities of the reproductive structures, floral receptacles, fruiting axes and pollen morphology allow the identification of these varied reproductive organs in the same taxon. Inflorescences are racemes bearing at least thirteen attached, helically arranged flowers. Flowers are three-, four- and five-carpellate and syncarpous at the base. Bisexual flowers with two sepals, four or five petals and elongate, tetrathecal anthers contain psilate, pentacolpate pollen. Fruits are three-, four- or five-loculate capsules with complete septa, more than forty seeds per locule, and show loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds are anatropous, exarillate with abundant perisperm. The outer integument is represented by a palisade of elongate sclereids underlain by an inner integument of rectangular thin-walled cells. Seed anatomy resembles that in the Nymphaeaceae, byt seed shape and lack of an operculum differ from nymphaeaceous taxa. This combination of reproductive characters is unknown among extant angiosperms, suggesting that these remains may represent an extinct family of aquatic Magnoliidae.