Honey Locust

Gleditsia, Mittelmiozän

About the object

A further two, smaller fossilised leaves are visible embedded to the right of the elongated, prominent willow leaf. The carbon layer has almost worn away entirely. What is left can merely be discerned by the faint leaf impressions and individual black carbon residues. The leaves probably once came from a honey locust tree (Gleditsia). This genus is part of the Leguminosae family (legumes) which it shares with, among other subfamilies, the acacias. There are only three leaves from this genus preserved from the total of 164 marlstone slabs taken from the Bohlinger Schlucht, which form the museum’s collection. It is not possible to allocate this sample to a specific species definitively, on account of features either not fossilised or, by now, too weathered to identify.
see less see more
Today, the genus Gleditsia is native to North and South America, Asia and Africa. Gleditsia became extinct in Europe during the last ice age. The plants were reintroduced by people for decorative purposes and are frequently found naturalised across southern Europe.
Werner Stumpf, a former honorary employee of the Museum of nature and man, led the excavations at Schiener Berg during the 1990s during which slabs of rock containing fossilised leaves, branches and freshwater bivalves were discovered. Werner Stumpf cleared away the surrounding marl and identified the fossilised plant species.

Object information

Ihre Nachricht

Ihre Nachricht zum Objekt

Ihre Nachricht zur Person