Salix acutissima Goepp. willow leaves and Ulmus carpinoides Goepp. elm leaves imprints

period: Upper Miocene (7.25–5.33 million years ago)

excavation site: Sośnica (Lower Silesia)

Outstandingly rich plant matter was excavated in the outcrop of old brickyard in Sośnica. The imprints of leaves (rarely twigs, flowers, fruits and seeds) come from trees and shrubs of riparian forest – such as fossils of willows, elms and alders, but also exotic for today’s Poland liquidambars, sycamores and pterocaryas. These are mainly trees which leaves fall in winter, which signifies the cooling of the climate in the younger Miocene. The material also preserved the remains of water and swamp plants and plants from a mix coniferous forest. A research on fossil flora from Sośnica was published in the 50s of the 19th century and was the first paleobotanical work in the world.

The piece comes from the collection of Polish Academy of Sciences Museum of the Earth in Warsaw.