Eucommia rolandii

Eucommia rolandii is an extinct species of flowering plant in the family Eucommiaceae. E. jeffersonensis is known from a fossil leaves found in Middle Eocene deposits of British Columbia, Canada and Mississippi, United States. E. rolandii is one of five described fossil species from North America assigned to the modern genus Eucommia. The other species are E. constans, E. eocenica, E. jeffersonensis, and E. montana.

Eucommia rolandii is known from only two fossils, a holotype and an additional specimen referred to the species. The holotype, specimen UF 11034, is housed in the paleobotanical collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History, and is from Middle Eocene rocks of the Talahatta Formation. The specimen was recovered from strata exposed in the Bovay Clay pit near Holly Springs, Mississippi. The other fossil is marked as specimen SFU 14748, and is part of the collections at Simon Fraser University. SFU 14748 is composed of three attached leaves in association with, but not attached to, fruits identified as from the species E. montana.Eucommia rolandii was first studied by paleobotanists Victor B. Call and David L. Dilcher, both of the University of Florida in Gainesville. Call and Dilcher's 1997 type description of the new species was published in the botanical journal American Journal of Botany. The specific epithet rolandii was chosen in honor of the American paleobotanist Roland W. Brown who was responsible for the first identification of Eocommia fossils found in North America.