School of Botany - Theses

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Author: Tims, Jacqueline D. J. × End date: 1989 × Start date: 1980 × Subject: Victoria ×

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    The early land flora of Victoria
    Tims, Jacqueline D. J. ( 1980)
    A re-examination of existing collections together with detailed examination of material from four sites in the Early Devonian (Pragian/ Siegenian and provisional Late Silurian (Ludlovian) rocks of Victoria has considerably extended the geographic range of the known genera and added a significant number of new taxa to the Baragwanathia flora. This survey further confirms that the early land flora was comprised not only of the simplest types of vascular plants (the Rhyniophytes) but also plants of increasing complexity, the Zosterophylls, Lycophytes and Trimerophytes. The flora has a number of forms clearly closely related to plants from strata of the same age of the northern hemisphere. Ten new species are described, together with descriptions of fragmentary remains of at least ten others as yet too incomplete to be given formal status. Two new species of Salopella, a genus previously known only from the northern hemisphere, and a new species of Hedeia are new Rhyniophytes recorded for the first time. The Zosterophyllophytina is further represented by two new genera, Pluricaulis and Chamaecaulon, and a new species of Zosterophyllum. A second small and two other probably distinct species have been added to the genus Baragwanathia which together with a new plant with rhizophores, are members of the Lycophytina. Although represented only by one small fertile branch, a new species of Dawsonites, provides evidence that the Trimerophytina was also present in this flora. The presence of a portion of this flora, including the relatively complex Baragwanathia in rocks provisionally assigned by some geologists as Ludlovian, poses some unusual problems, as plants of this age in the northern hemisphere are only of the very simplest kind.