Fossilized Chinese Bamboo

Origination: China
Approximate: Height - 53" - Width - 21" - Depth - 9"
Large Fossilized Chinese Bamboo: $15,000.00 U.S.D.
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This unique Chinese museum-class sample of fossilized bamboo is a rare collector's piece dating to the Miocene Epoch, 23.03 to 5.3 million years ago.

Fossil bamboo leaves and pollen from Upper Miocene deposits of the Shengxian Formation in Tiantai and Ninghai counties, eastern Zhejiang, China represent a rare record in Asia. The distinctive pseudopetiole and parallel venation of the leaf blades and the clearly thickened annulus of the pollen aperture place them in the subfamily Bambusoideae. Morphological analysis supports the determination of these fossil leaves as belonging to the genus Bambusium and two new species are described. Bambusium latipseudopetiolus Q.J. Wang et B.N. Sun sp. nov. has a distinctly wide pseudopetiole of 0.23 cm in width and 0.40 cm in length, several vascular bundles on parallel veins, and 5 - 8 lateral veins on both sides of the midrib.

Bambusium longipseudopetiolus Q.J. Wang et B.N. Sun sp. nov. has a distinctly long pseudopetiole of 0.60 cm in length and 0.10 cm in width, several vascular bundles on the pseudopetiole, and 6 lateral veins on both sides of the midrib. Pollen grains from the same layer provide additional evidence of bamboos. They are characterized by 32.0 - 51.0 um in diameter, a round pore 3.0 - 4.0 um in diameter with a broad thickened annulus 2.5 - 3.5 um around, and several conspicuous secondary folds on the exine surface. The morphological analysis leads to their assignment to Graminidites bambusoides Stuchlik. These fossils are important for the study of bamboo phytogeography in China. They demonstrate that there were bamboos growing in southeastern China during the Late Miocene and that bamboos in Zhejiang begin to diversify no later than the Late Miocene. In combination with bamboo fossils from other places, it seems that bamboos had a wide distribution across southern China during the Miocene, ranging from southwestern Yun'nan to southeastern Zhejiang.

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