| Abstract: | The genus Podogonium HEER (extinct legume), known from many Tertiary localities in whole Europe, is rivised and newly combined: Gleditsia knorrii (HEER) GREGOR concerns the fructifications, Gleditsia lyelliana (HEER) HANTKE the leaves; the latter is divided into two formas: knorrii and lyelliana. A comparison with two one-seeded recent Gleditsia-species (G. aquatica MARSH. — USA and G. heterophylla BUNGE — China) yields following palecological setting for the fossil species: They lived under wet conditions (swamps, river banks, alluvial soils) — not in dry climate as believed formerly, together with deciduous trees. The stratigraphical range is from Lower Miocene to Pliocene, with the main occurence in Middle Miocene times (Upper Helvetian, Tortonian, Sarmatian-Karpatian, Badenian, Sarmatian). The fossil species are important plants in the Upper Freshwater Molasse in Bavaria and the adjacent regions. |
