In 2003, U.DERNBACH issued his latest edition, "Secrets of Petrified Plants", with a contribution by J.GALTIER on a large fossil tree from the Carboniferous of Scotland. The tissue structure of the wood shown there is in some way similar to that of small samples of petrified wood recently found at the Kleinnaundorf/Burgk site, as noticed by H.-J.WEISS, who called it "the wood with the biggest pith rays in the Doehlen basin". The similarity becomes evident when comparing the pictures below with that of Pitus primaeva in the above-mentioned book, p.37, Fig.4.

A small fragment of petrified wood found by the present author in excavated matter from a construction site at Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf, Zeissstr.14, showed the same features. Soon it became apparent that the fragment most probably belonged to a rather big tree trunk part recovered by fossil collectors in cooperation with the Museum fuer Naturkunde Chemnitz in 2002. (See the pictures below.)

Wood with features resembling those of Pitus withamii (p37, Fig. 5) has been discovered within a chert sample from Hainichen near Chemnitz.

Tree trunks with Pitus-type wood are described by A.V.GUTBIER in "Die Versteinerungen des Rothliegenden in Sachsen" (1849), p.26:

"Pissadendron, ENDLINGER. (Pitus WITHAM Inl. str. p.71) Tapering trunks bearing branches, consisting of ample pith, of wood without annual growth rings, and of bark. Multiple pith rays, wood fibres with 3-seriate pits. When inspecting my collection, Herr Custodian CORDA identified some cross sections showing the above features as Pitus. As known, WITHAM applied this name to petrified wood from the English coal measures. The trunk cross sections mentioned here are from the shales at Chemnitz."

In his palaeobotany textbook, W. GOTHAN mentions Pitys, describing it as similar to gymnosperms (cordaites) and placing it among the gymnosperms of uncertain affinity. Unfortunately there are no pictures there. The quotations below are taken from the 1973 edition. He seems to refrain from stating a definite opinion, which can be understood in view of the lack of information except for the wood structure.

"… Pitys differs from the similar Cordaites trunks by its very wide pith rays and the continuous central pith but it has a likewise centripetal xylem. In other respects the genus is closer to Cordaites trunks than to Calamopitys. Pitys, too, is mostly Lower Carboniferous …"

"Related to them (to cordaites, [annotation]) there are other gymnosperms whose knowledge is mainly based on their wood structure rather than their habit and in this respect are similar to the pteridosperms (Poroxylon, Pitys, and others)."

Conclusion

The above-mentioned finds resembling Pitus wood are worth a detailed inspection since, in our opinion, they are clearly distinguished from the more "normal" Dadoxylon-type wood varieties. This might provide an opportunity to disclose the nature of the mysterious Pitus tree.

Supplement

The subject has taken an unexpected turn: When R. ROESSLER and J GALTIER inspected the above-mentioned large trunk part on the occasion of a taphonomy workshop on Nov. 8th/9th 2003, they discovered wood wedges with the typical carinal voids only found in calamites and horsetails, and even a tiny central pith with cells preserved. Its diameter of about 50cm makes this trunk the largest well-preserved calamite ever seen. It will be scientifically investigated soon. So the suspicion that the big trunk is something special, as aroused by the peculiar wood structure of the splinter, has turned true, although in another way than expected. Something great has been found out but one question still lingers around: Do the big pith rays found in Saxony all belong to the giant calamite or is there Pitus among them after all?

photographs: H.SAHM/Dresden, text & photographs: R.KRETZSCHMAR/Chemnitz