3.8" Red Fossil Leaf (Fraxinus) - Montana

This is a 3.8" long, fossil leaf of Fraxinus eocenica from the Fort Union Formation of Montana. Fraxinus (English name ash), is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen.

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 seam "cooked" the rock at some point in the past. This changed the color and gave it a chalky texture.