Miocene Astelia (Asparagales: Asteliaceae) macrofossils from southern New Zealand

Abstract

The discovery of Early Miocene Asteliaceae fossils at Foulden Maar in southern New Zealand provided a good opportunity to assess the usefulness of cuticular information for identifying members in this family. On the basis of cuticular morphology, the Foulden specimens are assigned to Astelia Banks & Sol. ex R.Br. and described as a new species, A. antiquua Maciunas et al. They are shown to have some affinities with A. alpina, A. linearis and also an apparently unnamed Astelia taxon from southern Westland, New Zealand. Although cuticular characteristics alone were of help in identifying individual species, the addition of gross morphological characters facilitated the differentiation between Asteliaceae genera, greatly improving the phylogenetic placement of the fossil. On the basis of analysis of the combined data, Astelia and Collospermum formed a clade and were sister to a Milligania and Neoastelia clade, albeit with most branches showing little overall bootstrap support.