Drepanophycales Pichi-Sermolli 1958
An order of extinct plants of the Division Lycopodiophyta of ?Late Silurian to Late Devonian age, found in North America, China, Russia, Europe, and Australia. Sometimes known as the Asteroxylales or Baragwanathiales.
Description
Extinct terrestrial
vascular plants of the
Silurian to
Devonian periods. Stem of the order of several mm to several cm in diameter and several cm to several metres long, erect or arched, dichotomizing occasionally, furnished with true roots at the base. Vascular bundle an exarch
plectostele or
actinostele,
tracheids of primitive annular or helical type (so-called G-type). Stem clothed in either microphylls (leaves with a single vascular thread or 'vein'), or with leaf-like enations (unvascularized projections) with a vascular trace into the base of each enation. Homosporous, with
sporangia borne singly and dehiscing by a single slit.
List of families
References
Pichi-Sermolli REG (1958). The higher taxa of Pteridophyta and their classification. In
Systematics of today. (O. Hedberg, ed.).
Uppsala Universitets Ã…rsskrift 6:70-90.
prehistoric plants | Devonian | Silurian | Lycopodiophyta