Lepidodendron (also known as the "Scale tree") is an extinct genus of primitive, vascular, arborescent (tree-like) plant related to the Lycopsids (club mosses). They are sometimes called Giant club mosses. They sometimes reached heights of over 30 m, and the trunks were often over 1 m in diameter. They thrived during the Carboniferous period. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Lycopodiopsida - clubmosses Selaginellopsida - spikemosses Isoetopsida - quillworts The division Lycopodiophyta is a tracheophyte subdivision of the Kingdom Plantae that includes some of the most primitive of extant (living) vascular plants. ... Species See text Quillworts are plants of the genus Isoetes in the class Isoetopsida and order Isoetales. ... In biology, a species is the basic unit of biodiversity. ... In biology, a genus (plural genera) is a grouping in the classification of living organisms having one or more related and morphologically similar species. ... Classes Lycopodiopsida - clubmosses Selaginellopsida - spikemosses Isoetopsida - quillworts The division Lycopodiophyta is a tracheophyte subdivision of the Kingdom Plantae that includes some of the most primitive of extant (living) vascular plants. ... The Carboniferous is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359. ...

Lepidodendron had tall, thick trunks that rarely branched and were topped with a crown of bifurcating branches bearing clusters of narrow leaves. These leaves were long and narrow, similar to large blades of grass. They were spirally-arranged. In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ...

The closely packed diamond-shaped leaf scars left on the trunk and stems as the plant grew provide some of the most interesting and common fossils in Carboniferous shales and accompanying coal deposits. These fossils look much like tire tracks or alligator skin. A fossil Ammonite Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally having been dug up) are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms. ... Shale Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. ... Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (strip mining). ... Species Alligator mississippiensis Alligator sinensis An alligator is a crocodile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. ...

Fossil trunk of Lepidodendron aculeatum showing leaf scars

The scars, or leaf cushions, were composed of green, photosynthetic tissue. This is known because each is covered by a cuticle and is dotted with stomata, microscopic pores through which carbon dioxide from the air diffuses into plants. Likewise, the trunks of Lepidodendrons would have been green, unlike modern trees which have scaly, non-photosynthetic drab brown or gray bark. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Leaf. ... This is not about surgically created bowel openings; see stoma (medicine) In botany, a stoma (also stomate; plural stomata) is a tiny opening or pore, found mostly on the undersurface of a plant leaf, and used for gas exchange. ... Carbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas comprised of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ...

Lepidodendron has been likened to a giant herb. The trunks produced very little, if any, wood. Most structural support came from a thick, bark-like region. This region remained around the trunk as a rigid layer that did not flake off like that of most modern trees. As the tree grew, the leaf cushions expanded to accommodate the increasing width of the trunk. A herb (pronounced hurb in Commonwealth English and urb in American English) is a plant grown for culinary, medicinal, or in some cases even spiritual value. ...

The branches of this plant ended in cone-like structures on the ends of the branches. Lepidodendron did not produce seeds like many modern plants. Instead, it reproduced by means of spores. It is estimated that these plants grew rapidly and lived 10-15 years. Some species were probably monocarpic, meaning they reproduced only once toward the end of their life cycle. SEED is a block cipher developed by the Korean Information Security Agency. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Lepidodendron likely lived in the wettest parts of the coal swamps that existed during the Carboniferous period. They grew in dense stands, likely having as many as 1000 to 2000 giant clubmosses per hectare. This would have been possible because they did not branch until fully grown, and would have spent much of their lives as unbranched poles. In its juvenile stages, the trunk was supported by grass-like leaves that grew straight out of the trunk.

By the Mesozoic era, the giant clubmosses had died out and were replaced by smaller clubmosses, probably due to competition from the emerging woody gymnosperms and other plants. Lepidodendron is one of the more common plant fossils found in Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) age rocks. They are closely related to other extinct genera, Sigillaria and Lepidendropsis. The Mesozoic is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. ... Coast Douglas-fir cone, from a tree grown from seed collected by David Douglas Gymnosperms are seed-bearing, vascular plants. ... A fossil Ammonite Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally having been dug up) are the mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms. ... The Pennsylvanian is a geologic (sub)period lasting from roughly 325 million years before the present (BP) to 286 million years BP. As with most other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified, but the exact date of the start and end are uncertain by... Sigillaria is the name of a genus of primitive trees which flourished in the early carboniferous period. ...

Trivia

In the 19th Century, due to the reptilian look of the diamond-shaped leaf scar pattern, petrified trunks of Lepidodendron were exhibited at fairgrounds as giant fossil lizards or snakes. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... In geology, petrifaction or petrification is the process by which organic material is converted into stone or a similar substance. ... Families Many, see text. ... Superfamilies and Families Henophidia Aniliidae Anomochilidae Boidae Bolyeriidae Cylindrophiidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Uropeltidae Xenoplplplpeltidae Typhlopoidea Anomalepididae Leptotyphlopidae Typhlopidae Xenophidia Acrochordidae Atractaspididae Colubridae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Viperidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ...

The name Lepidodendron comes from the Greek lepido, scale, and dendron, tree.

See also

• Glossopteris
• Archaeopteris

Glossopteris (Greek glossa, meaning tongue, because the leaves were tongue-shaped) is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales. ... Archaeopteris is an extinct genus of tree-like ferns that many scientists believe to be the first tree. ...

References

• Davis, Paul and Kenrick, Paul. Fossil Plants. Smithsonian Books, Washington D.C. (2004).
• Morran, Robin, C.; A Natural History of Ferns. Timber Press (2004). ISBN 0881926671