Palm trees were missing on the volcanic islands of the Triassic atolls, as they were not to turn up until over 100 million years later! Yet there were palmlike trees that were related to primitive plants today represented by the ginkgo or sago cycad. Pterophyllum belongs to the now-extinct Benettitales, which populated the coasts in the Triassic period along with primitive conifers and ferns. Palm trees would not have been a feature of these beaches!

Ortiseia leonardii was a large conifer similar to today's Araucaria in South America. It grew along rivers flowing through a semi-dry flood plain, represented today by the red Val Gardena Sandstone rock unit. The best-preserved fossils come from the area around Ortisei, which lends the genus its name. These plants are presumed to have formed small forests that were the habitat of a large number of animals drawn there by the water.