Banksieaephyllum is a plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 that encompasses organically preserved fossil leaves that can be attributed to the Proteaceae

Proteaceae

Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...

 tribe Banksieae, but cannot be attributed to a genus.

Before 1950, many fossil leaves were attributed to the genera Banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

and Dryandra

Dryandra

Banksia ser. Dryandra is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus Banksia. It was considered a separate genus named Dryandra until early 2007, when it was merged into Banksia on the basis of extensive molecular and morphological evidence that Banksia was paraphyletic with...

. In most cases, leaves with triangular lobes were associated with Dryandra, and leaves with serration were associated with Banksia. In 1950, Isabel Cookson and Suzanna Duigan showed this policy to be flawed, by demonstrating that the leaves of the two genera cannot be reliably distinguished. Since these two genera then comprised tribe Banksieae, Cookson and Duigan erected Banksieaephyllum to contain such leaves.

Since then, Banksia and Dryandra have been further grouped into subtribe Banksiinae, and another subtribe, Musgraveinae, erected to contain two new genera. Interpretations of Banksieaephyllum are now no longer consistent. Some botanists continue to hold that Banksieaephyllum is for fossil leaves that can be attributed to Banksieae but not to a genus; that is, they include fossils that cannot be excluded from the Musgravinae. Others hold that Cookson and Duigan's intentions were for the genus to hold fossil leaves that are known to be Dryandra or Banksia, but cannot be attributed to either with certainty; thus they now define the genus in terms of Banksinae rather than Banksieae.

Dryandra has now been transferred into Banksia. Although as yet undetermined, the latter interpretation would result in Banksieaephyllum becoming a nomenclatural synonym of Banksia.

Fossils ascribed to Banksieaephyllum have been found in sediments dating from the Paleocene

Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...

 to early Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 . As of 1998, the most recent synopsis, there are 16 species, including:

• Banksieaephyllum acuminatum Oligocene, Latrobe Valley, Victoria.
• Banksieaephyllum angustum
• Banksieaephyllum attenuatum
• Banksieaephyllum cuneatum
• Banksieaephyllum elongatus
• Banksieaephyllum fastigatum
• Banksieaephyllum incisum
• Banksieaephyllum longifolium
• Banksieaephyllum obovatum
• Banksieaephyllum pinnatum
• Banksieaephyllum praefastigatum Late Paleocene, Southern Highlands of New South Wales.
• Banksieaephyllum regularis
• Banksieaephyllum taylorii (Late Palaeocene , Lake Bungarby, southeastern New South Wales.
• Banksieaephyllum urnifome
• Banksieaephyllum westdaliense

See also

• Banksieaeformis, a genus for fossil leaves with the same architecture as Banksieaephyllum, but without organic detail; like Banksieaephyllum, these can be attributed to tribe Banksieae, but not to a genus.
• Banksieaeidites
  Banksieaeidites
  Banksieaeidites is a plant genus that encompasses fossil pollen that can be attributed to the Proteaceae tribe Banksieae, but cannot be attributed to a genus....
  
  , a genus for fossil pollen specimens that can be attributed to tribe Banksieae, but not to a genus.