The IAWA Team at their sales table: Standing from left to right: Lisa Boucher, Anais Boura, Jakub Sakala. Sitting: Elisabeth Wheeler, Anne-Laure Decombeix and Pieter Baas.

IAWA staged two successful sessions on the anatomy of fossil woods at the 10th European Paleobotany & Palynology Conference (EPPC), held from 12-17 August 2018 at University College Dublin, Ireland. For many years now, IAWA has established close contacts with the paleobotanical world, and organises symposia at both its European and international conferences. Conveners Anais Boura, Lisa Boucher, Anne-Laure Decombeix, and Elisabeth Wheeler compiled a diverse and interesting programme with contributions on the vesselless xylem of early Devonian land plants up to the full range wood diversity of fossil angiosperms, even including a challenging paper on the effects of hemiparisites on the wood anatomy of the host in an extant species. It is amazing to what degree of detail fossil woods can be used to study their 3D structure, their association with fungi, and how growth rings can even be crossdated in the world famous fossil forest of the island of Lesbos in Greece, millions of years after their fossilization. During the breaks,　IAWA sold a large number of its special publications (especially the Bark List sold well) and recruit new members. The next paleobotanical event will be in 2020 in Prague where Jakub Sakala will host the IAWA sessions and IAWA Social Hour during the joint meeting of the International Organisation of Palaeobotany Conference (IOPC) & International Palynological Congress (IPC), hopefully rivaling his own achievement at the 7th EPPC with an unforgettable IAWA Social Hour in the monastery of a famous Czech vineyard.

 

Pieter Baas