The wood flora of the Cairo Petrified Forest, with five Paleogene new legume records for Egypt

Scattered palaeobotanical information pertaining to the Cairo Petrified Forest in the Eastern Desert is summarized here, for the first time since over 150 years. Examined wood specimens recently collected from the Cairo Petrified Forest belonged to seven legume species of which five are new records for Egypt, bringing the total known from this Forest to twenty-one species and from Egypt to sixty species. Descriptions and affinities of the seven species, the distribution of the twenty-one species and palaeoclimatic inferences are given with relevant comments.

► Wood specimens from the Cairo Petrified Forest belonged to 7 legume species.
► Woods are of Tertiary age.
► Twenty-one species are known from this Forest.