New taxa for the palaeoflora of Satovcha and Ustren (Rhodope Mtn., Bulgaria)

Six new taxa for the Bulgarian paleoflora are presented. The paleobotanical material was obtained during field activities funded by the Regional Natural History Museum – Plovdiv in 2019. Four taxa are represented from the early Oligocene flora of Ustren (E Rhodope Mtn.). The new taxa established here are Bauhinia aff. khasiana Baker, Juncus sp., Laurophyllum heeri (Ettings.) Nemejc & Knobloch and Vaccinium acheronticum Unger. The nearest living relatives of these taxa are of different geographical origin. The recent species Bauhinia khasiana Baker is distributed in SE Asia while nearest living relatives of Laurophyllum heeri and Vaccinium acheronticum, respectively Nectandra opositifolia Nees et Mart. and Vaccinium stamineum L. are distributed in the Americas. The first one in tropical S America and the second – mainly in subtropical N America. Genus Juncus has a cosmopolitan distribution.The taxa Lithocarpus aff. uvariifolius (Hance) Rehder and Oreopanax aff. anomalus M.J. Cannon et Cannon have been identified from the middle Miocene flora of Satovcha (W Rhodope Mtn.). The recent species Lithocarpus uvariifolius (Hance) Rehder is distributed in areas of SE Asia characterized by a subtropical climate while Oreopanax anomalus M.J. Cannon et Cannon is a tropical endemic species for Costa Rica (Central America).