Vegetative Characters, Growth Habit and Microsporangiate Strobilus of Lycopsid Minostrobus chaohuensis
Late Devonian Minostrobus chaohuensis is one of the earliest monosporangiate-strobilate isoetaleans. Based on new material of this plant, the vegetative axis and microsporangiate strobilus are studied in detail, and the whole plant knowledge is summarized. The vegetative axis is isotomously branched. The stem is up to 55 mm in diameter with helically arranged leaf cushions. Stems and thick branches bear long fusiform leaf cushions and interareas with vertical linear ornamentations. A ligule pit, oblanceolate leaf scar, and vascular bundle scar appear on the leaf cushion. Distal axes have persistent lanceolate leaves and rhombic leaf bases. The microsporangiate strobilus is cylindrical in shape, possesses sporophyll with alate pedicel and long triangular lamina, uniseriate sporangial wall, subarchesporial pad inside the sporangium, and microspore with cingulum. Based on comparisons with other isoetaleans, the usage of the terms “leaf cushion” and “leaf base” is discussed, and Minostrobus chaohuensis is considered as a tree-like lycopsid. It suggests that arborescent isoetaleans with monosporangiate strobili had appeared and diversified in the Late Devonian. The multi-dichotomous branching system of Minostrobus provides new data on the evolution of growth architecture in rhizomorphic lycopsids.
New perspective on the architecture of the Late Devonian arborescent lycopsid Leptophloeum rhombicum (Leptophloeaceae).
A reinvestigation of the previously described Leptophloeum rhombicum trunk from the Late Devonian (Frasnian) Huangchiateng Formation of Hubei, China provides a new perspective on the architecture of this arborescent lycopsid. It is preserved as a flattened, silicified petrification with an unevenly permineralized primary vasculature and spirally arranged rhombic leaf cushions, which agree with the diagnosis of L. rhombicum Dawson distributed worldwide in the Late Devonian. Taxonomically, this plant should be assigned to its own family and within the order Isoëtales sensu lato. The anatomy, from different levels of the trunk, demonstrates that the ontogeny of the plant may conform to a determinate growth pattern. Combining previous data with current architectural analysis, it suggested that the L. rhombicum tree had a pseudomonopodial branching pattern rather than an iso-dichotomous branching crown as previously proposed. New reconstruction of the general habit for this tree is given and consists of three major architectural units: a stigmarian rhizomorph, a main trunk, and lateral branches. When these results are considered with recent cladistic work, L. rhombicum may have developed similar growth architecture to some Famennian and Carboniferous arborescent lycopsids. This growth represents one of the archetypal architectures found in the Isoëtales s.l. extending from the early Late Devonian.
Lycopods of Pennsylvanian age coals: Polysporia
Permineralized specimens of Polysporia are described from coal balls of three Middle Pennsylvanian age coals of the Illinois Basin. Identification is based on the presence of Endosporites microspores and Valvisporites megaspores along with sporangial fragments in the axils of leaves interpreted as sporophylls. The shoots exhibit alternating fertile and vegetative zones. Vegetative leaves are larger than sporophylls which are often desiccated and folded back against the stem surface; a short zone of transitional sterile leaves is found between vegetative and spore-bearing zones. Ligule pits are present on the adaxial surface of vegetative leaves. The stems are essentially herbaceous but robust and 4–6 cm in diameter. Small amounts of periderm and wood were produced but primary tissues were not disrupted. Polysporia is the first herbaceous lycopod with an alternation of fertile and vegetative areas found in Pennsylvanian peats and is compared with Spencerites, Sporangiostrobus, and Lepidodendron dacrydioide...