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Wood of Connaroxylon dimorphum (Connaraceae, Oxalidales) from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds of India (KPg Boundary 65–67 MY BP) is described. It is characterized by parenchyma-like fiber bands alternating with normal fibers, septate and nonseptate fibers, vessel-ray pits with strongly reduced borders, uniseriate rays of square and upright cells, and radial tubules in the center of ray cells that are arranged in a herringbone pattern. The overall wood anatomy strongly resembles Melastomataceae p. p., Lagerstroemia p. p. (Lythraceae) and Connarus (Connaraceae). However, the shared radial tubules of Connarus and the fossil strongly tilt the evidence of botanical affinities towards this genus. This would represent the second and by far the oldest fossil wood record of the Connaraceae, also considerably older than the earliest fossil records of the family’s other plant parts, and one of the oldest fossils of the order Oxalidales.

The wood of Oleoxylon deccanense, reported informally in 1981 from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds of central India, is re-examined. We provide a formal diagnosis for the species and a more detailed description. The similarity to wood from species groups of the modern genera Chionanthus and Olea leads us to infer that this fossil taxon probably belongs to the monophyletic drupaceous subtribe Oleinae of the olive family, Oleaceae (Lamiales), although affinities with Rhamnaceae and Rutaceae cannot be wholly excluded. Since the fossil is from a late Maastrichtian-Danian horizon (65–67 MY BP) this would imply that a member of the Oleaceae was part of the flora that inhabited India several million years prior to the tectonic impact of India with Asia. The seemingly modern appearance of this and other Deccan fossil woods is briefly discussed.

Strangely configured vessels composed of few elements interconnected in a sphere- or ring-like structure are reported from the type specimen of Amooroxylon deccanensis Bande & Prakash, a large fossil trunk from the Deccan Intertrappean Beds of central India (late Cretaceous-early Paleocene, about 66 MY before present). In the recent flora, circular vessels have been found mainly in association with branching nodes, axillary buds, wound callus, and pathogens, and they have been artificially induced by auxin. The presence of circular vessels in this fossil trunk showing no signs of branching or trauma makes this record highly unusual.

This paper describes five species of dicotyledonous fossil wood from the lower Oligocene Tsuyazaki Formation in Tsuyazaki, Fukuoka Prefecture, northern Kyushu: Rhus palaeojavanica (Anacardiaceae), Alnus scalariforme (Betulaceae), Hamamelis prejaponica (Hamamelidaceae), Magnoliaceoxylon palaeogenica (Magnoliaceae) and Sonneratia kyushuensis (Sonneratiaceae). This brings the number of species described from the Tsuyazaki locality to 19. Among these 19 species modern equivalents of all species, except for Sonneratia, occur in temperate to subtropical forests. Sonneratia is found today in mangrove vegetation of tropical to subtropical regions. The presence of Sonneratia may suggest a warmer climate in Kyushu during the early Oligocene.