Acta Palaeobotanica 60(1), 51–122, 2020 e-ISSN 2082-0259 https://doi.org/10.35535/acpa-2020-0003 ISSN 0001-6594 The Karpatian (late early Miocene) flora of the Mecsek area LILLA HABLY Botanical Department, Hungarian Natural History Museum, H-1431 Budapest, P.O. box 137, Hungary; e-mail:
[email protected] Received 9 September 2019; accepted for publication 28 January 2020 In remembrance of the beautiful summers spent collecting with my family in the Mecsek Mountains ABSTRACT. A rich macroflora has been collected from Karpatian (late early Miocene) layers of the Mecsek Mts during recent decades. The bulk of the fossil assemblage consists of leaves and also fruits of angiosperms. Among the more than a hundred taxa, several endemic species were described: Leguminocarpum mecsekense Andreánszky, Ailanthus mecsekensis Hably, Nyssa gyoergyi sp. nov., Nyssa gergoei sp. nov., Nyssa sp. 1, Clematis csabae sp. nov., Gordonia sp. and Carpolithes gergoei Hably et Erdei sp. nov. Many taxa were last recorded in the Carpathian Basin, e.g. Cedrelospermum, Ziziphus. Other taxa appeared in this flora, e.g. Quercus kubinyii, Podocarpium podocarpum, Liquidambar europaea and Populus populina, and later became dominant in the middle Miocene (Sarmatian) floras or even in the late Miocene (Pannonian) floras. Four main vegetation types were determined. The most significant types are subxerophytic vegetation showing high diversity, swamp veg- etation, riparian vegetation, and a vegetation type growing in habitats with higher rainfall. Thermophilous flora elements are dominant in the assemblage, although “arctotertiary” species also appear. The floristic character of the flora supports the results of an earlier quantitative climate analysis of the Magyaregregy flora, accord- ing to which mean annual temperature was 15.6–16.6°C and coldest-month and warmest-month temperatures were 5–6.2°C and 24.7–27.9°C, respectively.