Some porate pollen from the upper Tertiary of New Zealand

Abstract

Two new genera—Sparsipollis and Harrisipollenites—are erected to accommodate spinulose, annulate, porate pollen, and finely reticulate, monoporate, pollen tetrads, respectively. Three new species are described—Sparsipollis papillatus, Harrisipollenites annulatus, and Parsonsidites multi-porus. Pseudowinterapollis couperi Krutzsch 1970 is described for the first time. Aglaoreidia qualumis Partridge and Liliacidites sphericus Couper are transferred to the genus Sparganiaceae-pollenites Thiergart ex Potonié 1960, restricting Aglaoreidia to species with flattened distal or proximal sides and distinctive graduated reticulation. Triporopollenites bellus Partridge, an Australian Miocene-Pliocene species, is recorded from New Zealand, and Parsonsidites psilatus Couper is redescribed. P. psilatus and P. multiporus have a botanical affinity with the family Balanophoraceae, not Apocynaceae (Parsonsia).