Szecladia new genus, a late Permian conifer with multiveined leaves from South China

A conifer from the uppermost Permian with small, helically arranged leaves is described from the Guangxi Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province of Sou th China as Szecladia multinervia, new genus and species. The material incl udes both impression specimens and the first anatomically preserved Paleozo ic conifer fossils from China. Shoots are irregularly branched, with small, helically arranged, multiveined leaves. Stems display an endarch eustele w ith abundant, dense wood. Leaf traces diverge from the stele as a single bu ndle that divides several times in the cortex and at the base of the leaves , forming about seven or eight parallel veins in each leaf. Szecladia is th e earliest known conifer with multiveined leaves and it represents a distin ctive coniferous element of the uppermost Permian Cathaysian flora in South China. Szecladia further demonstrates that conifers with wood and leaf ven ation suggestive of the Podocarpaceae may have evolved by the end of the Pa leozoic.