A Lower Carboniferous Lepidodendropsis flora in Kashmir

Abstract

The concept of a more or less uniform world-wide flora (the ‘Lepidodendropsis flora’) of early Carboniferous age, was first expounded by Jongmans¹. He cited the fossil plant genera Lepidodendropsis, Triphyllopteris and Rhacopteris as characterising this palaeofloristic unit, of which he claimed representation from a number of Northern and Southern Hemisphere localities. Subsequent work has generally confirmed his conclusion that in the early Carboniferous a floristically rather uniform lycopod-rich association extended into all the major continents, preceding the onset of Carbo–Permian glaciation. In its relative uniformity this flora contrasts sharply with the pronounced regional character of the floras (especially the Gondwana Glossopteris flora) that followed the glaciation. Although representation of Jongman's Lepidodendropsis flora was claimed for the major southern land masses (South America, Africa, Australia) only a very limited Carboniferous flora, of a few genera of fern/pteridosperm leaves, has been reported^2,3 from India. This flora, from the Thabo stage of Spiti, in the Western Himalayas, was the only Indian Carboniferous flora known hitherto, and it differed significantly from its counterparts in other parts of Gondwanaland in the absence of Lepidodendropsis, and indeed any other lycopods. A newly discovered flora of Lower Carboniferous age from the Gund Formation of Kashmir, some 400 km west-northwest of Spiti is reported here.