Some Middle Eocene localities in Germany (e.g. Geiseltal, Messel, Eckfeld) have yielded a great number of exceptionally well preserved plant remains such as leaves, seeds/fruits, flowers/inflorescences with pollen in situ, and dispersed pollen. Combining the different taphocoenoses, reconstruction of the minor-scale differentiation of the Middle Eocene vegetation of Central Europe is possible to a certain degree. A complex inflorescence of undoubtful chloranthaceous affinity was recently found in Eckfeld. It is now covering a major gap in the reliable fossil record of that primitive angiosperm family which has been for the first time recorded even in the Lower Cretaceous. Emmapollis is a genus for dispersed pollen which are well known from the Central European Tertiary. Various botanical interpretations have previously been offered for these quite characteristic grains, already including chloranthaceous affinities. The new inflorescence from Eckfeld is clearly showing Emmapollis-type grains in-situ preserved within the anthers. This is now unequivocally proving their chloranthaceous affinities. Therefore the new fossil my be regarded as a missing link in the stratigraphic distribution of Chloranthaceae, and in the assignment of a certain type of dispersed pollen.

Key words: , Chloranthaceae, Eocene, inflorescence, paleobotany, pollen