Occurance of some dipterocarpaceous woods in the cuddalore series of South India

Abstract

Dipterocarpaceous woods are very common in the Cuddalore Series of South India near Pondicherry. Investigations have revealed the occurrence of three more new species of dipterocarpaceous woods from this area. One of them, showing the closest resemblance with the genus Dipterocarpus, has been named Dipterocarpoxylon pondicherriense. Of the remaining two, one compares with some species of Shorea, Parashorea and Pentacme, while the other shows affinities with Shorea acuminata Dyer and many other Malayan shoreas. They have been described as Shoreoxylon indicum and S. arcotense respectively.

Fossil woods from Upper Tertiary sediments of Jammu region (Jammu & Kashmir) North-West India and their significance

“…These have been reported from the Middle Siwalik sediments of Hardwar in Uttar Pradesh and Darjeeling District of West Bengal (Prasad & Khare, 1994;Antal el al., 1999) and compared with the extant wood of Diplerocarpus speciosus and D. gracilis, respectively. Out of the above referred fossil woods, the present fossil shows apparent similarity in gross structure as well as in the near absence of diffuse-in-aggregate parenchyma with Dipterocarpoxylon pondicherriense Awasthi, reported from the Upper Tertiary sediments ofPondicherry and Kachchh in Gujarat (Awasthi, 1974;Guleria, 1983). However, in D. pOlldicherriellse frequency of gum canals is high and they are more or less regularly arranged in short or long tangential rows.…”

Some fossil woods from the Tertiary of Kachchh, Western India

“…f. wood. Out of 23 species of Dipterocarpoxylon known so far from India and abroad (Awasthi, 1974a(Awasthi, , b, 1980Prakash, 1975Prakash, ,1978Prakash, ,1981Lemoigne, 1978;Ghosh & Roy, 1979;Trivedi & Ahuja, 1980) the present fossil shows closest similarity in all its anatomical characters with Dipterocarpoxy-Ion pondicherriense Awasthi (l974a) described from the Cuddalore Series near Pondicherry. The only difference between the two is that the frequency of gum canals seems to be relatively more in the present fossil than in D. pondicherriense.…”

Some more fossil woods from the Lower Siwalik sediments of Kalagarh, Uttar Pradesh and Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh

“…A large number of fossil woods resembling to Dipterocarpus are known from India and abroad, most of which were earlier listed by Prakash (1973) and Awasthi (1974) and subsequently few more species of Dipterocarpoxylon were described (Awasthi, 1974(Awasthi, , 1980Prakash, 1975Prakash, , 1978Prakash, , 1979bPrakash, , 1980Ghosh & Roy, 1979;Trivedi & Ahuja, 1980). Dipterocarpoxylon kalaicharparense Eyde shows some similarity with the present fossil wood but differs in having abundant apotracheal parenchyma forming patches in the ground tissue and comparatively narrower xylem rays as compared to the present fossil.…”