A new species of Taxodioxylon from the Lower Cretaceous of the Jixi Basin, eastern Heilongjiang, China

Newly discovered silicified wood from the Jixi Basin, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, represents the first record of Taxodioxylon sensu Gothan from the Lower Cretaceous of China. Taxodioxylon szei sp. nov. is characterized by abundant wood parenchyma, uniseriate rays 1–50 cells in height, 1–2 rows of separately or contiguously arranged bordered pits, taxodioid-type pits in cross field, no normal resin canals and an absence of spiral thickenings in tracheids. It agrees well with the diagnostic characters of Taxodioxylon, but is distinguished from previously described species by higher rays, the presence of idioblasts in some rays, and by having black granules, which seem to be clusters of a needle-like substance (crystals?) in axial wood parenchyma cells, and traumatic resin canals. The anatomy of T. szei, and other palaeobotanical and sedimentological evidence indicate that the Early Cretaceous climate of the Jixi Basin was seasonal and very favourable to tree growth.