A putative Australian element in the European Miocene re-investigated - Mahonia exulata (UNGER) KVACEK & TEODORIDIS comb. nov. et emend.

Leaf fossils from the European Miocene previously assigned by OSWALD HEER to the proteaceous genus Hakea SCHRADER have been re-interpreted on the basis of newly enquired early Miocene material from the Bilina Basin in Northern Bohemia as foliage of Mahonia NUTTAL. The detailed morphological comparisons have led us to reject the previous assignment derived from the idea of Australian elements in the European Miocene, as suggested by UNGER and ETTINGSHAUSEN in the 19th century. Our new revision of this element stresses aff nities of the European Miocene f ora to the modern fl ras of E and SE Asia, namely China. Mahonia exulata (UNGER) KVACEK & TEODORIDIS is a rare plant of the European Miocene, known from Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic and elsewhere by peculiar spiny simple serrate leaf ets with asymmetrical base, which morphologically strongly deviate from the Hakea with simple leaves. Some records assigned to Hakea exulata and also Hakea bohemica ETTTINGSHAUSEN from the Neogene of Northern Bohemia represent very fi ely toothed leaflet of Engelhardia orsbergensis (P. WESSEL & C.O. WEBER) JAHNICHEN, MAI & WALTHER, nom. illegit. (i.e., Hakea lanceolata C.O. WEBER in P. WESSEL & C.O. WEBER), which is widely distributed in the European Paleogene and Neogene (see WINTERSCHEID & KVACEK 2014).