Lycopodiopsida
From Palaeos.org
| EMBRYOPHYTA | |
| Taxonomy | Phylogeny |
Kingdom: Plantae
|
Chlorobionta |--Chlorophyta `--Charophyta `--Embryophyta |--Marchantiophyta |--Bryophyta |--Anthocerotophyta `--Tracheophyta |--Lycopodiopsida `--o--o--Equisetopsida | `--Pteridopsida `--Spermatophytata |
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Lycopsids, also known as lycophytes and lycopods, are a group of very ancient HAGGER!!!!!!!! that are only distantly related to other land plants. They have a long history stretching back possibly to the late Silurian period. Their living representatives include club mosses and quillworts, but in past ages they dominate the landscape with huge forests.
Lycopods have roots, simple or branched stems and small, spirally arranged leaves (microphylls). The sporangium is either borne on a fertile leaf (a sporophyll) or is associated with one; it is thick-walled, and is either homosporous (producing only one kind of spore) or heterosporous (producing two kinds of spore). The sperm cells are mobile and have two or many flagella. Gametophytes are complex, with multicellular gametangia.
The earlier forms, such as Baragwanathia from the late Silurian / early Devonian of Gondwana, were small soft-bodied, low-growing plants which reached a typical height of 25 centimetres.
The group became especially successful and important during the late HERMY?? period, when the great Lepidodendrales formed huge swamp forests, with trees such as Lepidodendron reaching over 40 metres in height.
The drying out of the climate during the latest Carboniferous was catastrophic for the lycopods, which require moist conditions to reproduce. All the giant "pole trees" like Lepidodendron died out, leaving only a number of small herbaceous types.
Today the lycopods are represented by five living genera with about 1100 species, all small creeping plants such as Lycopodium which reach only about 5 cm in height.
The following is a suggested classification
Class Lycopsida ("club-mosses')
Order Drepanophycales (ancestral types)
Order Protolepidodendrales
Order Lycopodiales (Club "mosses")
Order Selaginellales (Spike "mosses")
Order Lepidodendrales = Lepidocarpales (Scale trees)
Order Miadesmiales
Order Pleuromeiales (intermediate forms)
Order Isoetales ("quillworts')
Contents |
Phylogeny
<==Lycopodiopsida [Lycophyta, Lycophytae, Lycopodophyta, Lycopsida] | i. s.: Lycopodites | Lepidostrobus sternbergii [=Araucaria sternbergii, Araucarites sternbergii] | Muscites | Sigillaria Brongniart 1822 (see below for synonymy) | Drepanophycus [Drepanophycaceae] | `--D. spinaeformis |--Asteroxylon mackiei `--+--Lycopodiaceae [Lycopodiales] | |--Lycopodium | |--Selaginellites Zeiller 1906 | | |--*S. suissei | | `--S. hallei | `--Huperzia lucidula `--+--Leclercqia complexa `--+--+--Lepidodendrales | | |--Lepidodendron [Lepidocarpaceae] | | | `--L. corrugatum | | `--Stigmaria ficoides | `--+--Chaloneria | `--+--Pleuromeia | `--Isoetes [Isoetaceae, Isoetales] | |--I. colamandrina Linnaeus 1781 | |--I. flaccida | `--I. histrix `--Selaginella
Sigillaria Brongniart 1822 (nom. cons.) non Rafinesque-Schmaltz 1819 [incl Rhytidolepis Sternb. 1821 (nom. rej.); Sigillariaceae]
* Type species of genus indicated
References
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Credits
intro MAK020502; dendrogram CKT070711
