2.3" Red Fossil Leaf (Persea?) - Montana

This is a beautiful, 2.3" long, fossil leaf of Persea brossiana from the Fort Union Formation of Montana. Persea is a genus of about 150 species of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family.

The color of the rock and the leaves is rather unusual, and different than most of the leaves seen from the Fort Union Formation. They were collected from a locality where a fire in a nearby coal seem "cooked" the rock at sometime in the past. This changed the color and gave it a chalky texture. There are is some restoration to the leaf, were bits of it flaked onto the negative when split.