Roystonea palaea

Many of the characters used to separate modern species of Roystonea, including coloration, are not visible in the preserved flowers.^[1] The fossil flowers have darkened to shades of brown, with only the anthers retaining a light whitish color.^[1] Of the modern genera the R. palaea flowers are similar in structure, R. oleracea and R. dunlapiana both having a similar petal to sepal length ratio.^[1] R. palaea is most distinguishable from modern species by the large size of the calyx. The three species differ in the shape and length of their sepals, R. palaea having the longest of the species while R. dunlapiana has the shortest.^[1] R. oleracea also possesses longer anthers at 3.5–4.7 millimetres (0.14–0.19 in)which are recurved at the tips, unlike R. palaea, with anthers 1.7–3.1 millimetres (0.067–0.122 in) and straight. Along with the shorter sepal length R. dunlapiana also has purple anthers, differing from the light-colored anthers of R. palaea.^[1]

Of note is the damage which is present on the pistillate flower. One side of the flower is preserved, having the perianth ripped off exposing the center of the flower and the developing fruit, which has two scratches on the exposed side.^[1] Poinar proposes that the damages may have occurred due to an herbivore seizing the flower and subsequently dropping it in the soft tree resin, which afterward fossilized. This is supported by many of the modern Roystonea species having oily fruits that are eaten by a number of bird and bat species.^[1]