A petrified female strobilus from Mohgaonkalan, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

A conifer female strobilus is described from the Deccan Intertrappean beds of Mohgaonkalan, Madhya Pradesh, India. The description is based on two specimens exposed tangentially in silicified cherts. The female strobilus shows many bract scales arranged in a compact helix around the central axis. In the axil of each bract scale there is a dwarf shoot bearing a group of six megasporophylls with two inverted ovules on each, arranged spirally on condensed axis. The occurrence of dwarf shoot in the present cone distinguishes it from the earlier reported cones.