CEDRELA MERRILLII (CHANEY) BROWN, 1937

FIG. 6U

Cedrela merrillii (Chaney) Brown, 1937, Wash. Acad. Sci. J. 27, p. 511–512.

Rhus merrillii Chaney, 1927, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Publ. 346, p. 125, pl. 16, figs. 1, 2.

Referred specimens— UF 256-20807, 20808, 21044, 21050.

Description— Winged seed, elliptic, length 9–16 mm (x=12, N=4), width 4.1–5.5 mm (x=5, N=4), wing extending laterally from seed body; apex acute or obtuse; base acute; proximal margin straight, distal margin shallow convex; wing base sometimes extending around seed body in narrow strip; wing with single vein emerging from distal side of seed body, then arching upward to near apex along proximal margin, then sometimes looping back down just inside of distal margin; wing with distinct polygonal cells; seed body oval, length 4.1–5.2 mm (x=4.8, N=3), width 2.9–3.2 mm (x=3.0, N=3).

Discussion— The aforementioned characters are similar to the extant genus Cedrela Browne and conform to the fossil species Cedrela merrillii from the Bridge Creek flora. Leaflets of Cedrela lancifolia (Lesquereux) Brown (1937) are present in Ruby Basin, Beaverhead Basins, and Florissant floras. Cedrela pteraformis (Berry) Brown (1935), a winged seed with a hooked shaped distal margin (Brown 1935), is present in Metzel Ranch and Beaverhead Basins floras, and C. trainii Arnold (1936), a lanceolate leaflet, is present in the Sucker Creek flora (Arnold 1936b) (Table 2).

Cedrela includes 19 extant species of shrubs and trees, found in Mexico to tropical America (GBIF 2021, PoWO 2023).