Description

Middle Miocene (Seldovian)
Sucker Creek Formation – Sucker Creek Flora
Malheur County, Oregon, USA
21mm winged seed and small leaf on 59mm slab

Seed, Association.

Isolated seeds are difficult-to-impossible to identify if they are not known from specimens connected to another part of the plant.  This is often the case with extinct plants from the Paleozoic or Mesozoic with no modern relatives.

A “winged seed” bears an extended surface that allows them to whirl in the air on the way to the ground like a helicopter.  If it catches even a light breeze, it might drift far enough away to sprout where it can get some sun and grow successfully rather than be stuck in the shadow of the tree it fell from.