30 000-year-old-fossil Restionaceae pollen from central Equatorial Africa and its biogeographical significance

Reports the identification of fossil pollen attributed to the genus Restio, and resembling Restio mahonii, found in highland peat bogs from Rwanda and Burundi, and dating from 30 000 yr BP. There was a greater extension of the Restionaceae on the African continent, towards the equatorial region, at the end of the Pleistocene. The modern populations are probably relicts from this wider distribution. -from Authors