Acer whitebirdense

Viburnum whitebirdense

Acer whitebirdense is an extinct maple species in the family Sapindaceae described from a number of fossil leaves and samaras. The species is known from Miocene sediments exposed in Idaho, Oregon and Washington in the United States. It is one of several extinct species belonging to the living section Rubra.

Acer whitebirdense is known from a number of isolated leaves and fruits found in central Idaho, northeastern Oregon, and central and eastern Washington state. The holotype specimen was collected from exposures of the Latah Formation at White Bird, Idaho, and both leaves and fruits have been recovered from White Bird. Fruits are also identified from the Latah formation outcrops near Grand Coulee, Washington, the Brickyard and Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway roadcut in Spokane, Washington. In Oregon, fruits and leaves were identified by Wolfe and Toshimasa Tanai from a site near "Baker", and isolated fruits were noted from the Stinking water flora of central Oregon. Dating of volcanic tuffs associated with the Latah Formation at White Bird and Sucker Creek Formation at Sucker Creek in 2012 showed an age range from approximately 15.6 million years ago to 14.8 million years ago, placing the species into the Middle Miocene.

Leaves assigned by Wolfe and Tanai to A. whitebirdense were first described in 1932 by Thomas Ashlee as "Viburnum" whitebirdensis. Edward W. Berry in 1934 described leaves from White Bird as A. florissanti and Platanus dissecta respectively, plus a fruit as A. oregonianum. Later, in 1937, Roland W. Brown described White Bird leaves as Acer osmonti. Some leaves examined by Ralph Chaney and Daniel Axelrod were suggested to be Rubus species leaves and not Acer. When the White Bird fossils were re-examined, Wolfe and Tanai concluded that there was only one Acer species present at White Bird, and since the oldest species name applied to the fossils was "Viburnum" whitebirdensis, they moved the species to Acer as A. whitebirdense.