Locality
From Hollick (1930) (p. 75-76)
"Yukon River, north bank, about 6 miles above Nahochatilton (original No. 3AH16); collected by Arthur Hollick and Sidney Paige in 1903 (lot 3252)."
Description
From Hollick (1930) (p. 75-76)
"Leaf about 8 centimeters in length by about 6 centimeters in width across the base of the midrib, ovate-lanceolate, cordate at the base, narrowed above to an obtuse, emarginate apex; margin entire (or undulate and finely wrinkled or crenulate?); midrib straight,
prominent; secondaries uniformly fine, about twelve pairs, subopposite, the basal ones curved backward and downward, the upper ones ascending leaving the midrib at obtuse and approximately equal angles of divergence, all more or less uniformly forked, the
branches connecting and forming irregular polygonal loops, with finer branches from the angles, that connect and form a series of polygonal areolae from which others are derived in similar manner, forming a network of areolae that successively diminish in size toward the margin."
Remarks
From Hollick (1930) (p. 75-76)
"The specimen upon which this genus and species is based is too imperfect to enable accurate definition of all its characters. The base of the leaf blade is evidently partly broken away. The lobes must have been originally more rounded, and the sinus much narrower and more acute at the upper part than now appears, and the undulate and in places somewhat wrinkled or crenulate margin may be due to conditions of fossilization and not a natural character of the leaf.
This may be referred, without hesitation, to the Nymphaeaceae, and may be satisfactorily compared with the living Nymphaea kalmiana (Michaux) Sims [= Nuphar kalmiana Sims], our common small yellow pond lily. It clearly does not belong in the Nymphaea-Castalia group, in which some thirty fossil species are included - only two of them of Cretaceous age - and apparently the Nymphaea-Nuphar group has not heretofore been recognized as represented by any fossil species. It is also interesting to note that our specimen is apparently not only the first representative of its group to be found in the fossil form, but that it also antedates any recorded species of the Nymphaea-Castalia group. It is suggestive, however, of the leaves described and figured under the name Pterospermites cordifolius Heer (1882) (p. 94, pl. 27, figs. 2, 3) from the Atane beds of Greenland, in which occur several of the same species that are found associated in Alaska with Paleonuphar. Unfortunately the figures of Pterospermites cordifolius are too imperfect for satisfactory comparison with Paleonuphar, although it may be said that the general resemblance between them appears to be more marked than are the slight differences and it is doubtful, in any event, if Heer's species is properly referable to the genus Pterospermites as commonly understood and recognized."