An Unusual Botryopterid Sporangial Aggregation from the Middle Pennsylvanian of North America

A new fertile species of Botryopteris (Botryopteridaceae: Filicales) is described from four incomplete Middle Pennsylvanian specimens. Fertile pinnae of B. cratis sp. n. consist of branched frond members bearing numerous globose sporangia. Surrounding the sporangial aggregations are larger sterile frond members (0.5-1.5 mm diam). Fertile pinnae are oval in transverse section and possess an eccentrically developed cortex composed chiefly of fibers. Some frond members show the typical botryopterid xylem configuration with three protoxylem strands. Spherical sporangia are loosely aggregated on the smallest pinnae by short, broad stalks. The annulus is band-like, two cells high, and extends transversely across the lower half of the sporangium for approximately half the circumference. Spores are oval, trilete, verrucate, and covered by a thin separable layer. Sporangium morphology is like that of Botryopteris antiqua, but the spores closely resemble those of B. globosa. The new species is unlike previously described fructifications of Botryopteris in exhibiting a small pinna system which surrounds smaller pinnae bearing sporangia in an aggregation. The new form is considered to be less specialized than previously described globosoid forms because the sporangia are much less crowded. Isolated frond members, believed to belong to the new species, have a large central arm in the pinna xylem trace that resembles the Stephanian taxon B. renaultii. Small stems attached to the adaxial surface of frond members are radial, protostelic, centrarch, and have a three-zoned cortex. The inner cortical zone contains large elongate cells with distinctive layered deposits. Stems are covered with uniseriate multicellular hairs on multicellular bases. Stems compare closely with B. mucilaginosa in histological features.