Syringodendron - Sigillaria - lycopod fossil plant arborescent clubmoss

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PALEOBOTANICA STORE Check out my other items ! Dear buyers, I warmly welcome in my “ Paleobotanica” store created especially for the enthusiast of Palaeobotany!I am a fossil plants collector from many years, and unlike some other sellers on Ebay I do not guess the names of the plants, and don’t sold common plants with names of rarer species. Each bought specimen will be send with attached copy of the scientific literature from which your specimen was described – with the characteristics of the selected plants by which I could classify Your plant into genus and species. This will allow you to make sure that the bought specimen is really what was written in the item description. I also ask, to give me questions about any carboniferous age specimens. I will be very happy to help You in the determination of your findings. For me this is a real pleasure! Specimen : Syringodendron sp. ( Sigillaria sp.) Locality: Poland,GZW Upper Silesia Coal Basin Stratigraphy: Upper Carboniferous - Middle Pennsylvanian / Westphalian B - Orzeskie Beds Age: ca 305 Mya Matrix dimensions: 16,0 x 9,5 x 2,0 cm Description: Syringodendron is a generic name given to decorticated stems of Sigillaria. In such specimens, in the place of the leaf-scar there are seen two oval depressions, which lie close to each other, and are of considerable size. Most of the forms have been found directly connected with recognized species of Sigillaria . Syringodendron is a Sigillaria genus of extinct, spore-bearing, arborescent (tree-like) plants which flourished in the Late Carboniferous period but dwindled to extinction in the early Permian period. It was a lycopodiophyte, and is related to the lycopsids, or club-mosses, but even more closely to quillworts, as was its associate Lepidodendron. Sigillaria was a tree-like plant, with a tall, occasionally forked trunk that lacked wood. Support came from a layer of closely packed leaf bases just below the surface of the trunk, while the center was filled with pith. The old leaf bases expanded as the trunk grew in width, and left a diamond-shaped pattern, which is evident in fossils. The trunk had photosynthetic tissue on the surface, meaning that it was probably green. The trunk was topped with a plume of long, grass-like, microphyllous leaves, so that the plant looked somewhat like a tall, forked bottlebrush. The plant bore its spores (not seeds) in cone-like structures attached to the stem. Sigillaria, like many ancient lycopods, had a relatively short life cycle - growing rapidly and reaching maturity in a few years. Some have suggested that Sigillaria was monocarpic, meaning that it died after reproduction, though this is not proven. It was associated with Lepidodendron, the scale tree, in the Carboniferous coal swamps. The clubmoss trees of the genus Sigillaria formed an important part of the coal swamps in the Late Carboniferous. They could reach a height up to 30 ms and bore grasslike leaves in the upper part of the unbranched or once divided trunk. The leaves were attached directly to the stem and they left scars when they were shed. Characteristic of the genus of Sigillaria is the fact that the leaf scars were arranged in vertical rows. On the ground of these leaf scars many species have been described. The trunk was somewhat thickened at the base.The spore-cones were attached in or under the crown directly to the stem. They are called Sigillariostrobus. The underground parts of the tree can hardly be distinguished from those of Lepidodendron and they are called Stigmaria . From the Westfalian D on the number of species of Sigillaria diminished strongly. Systematic: Division: Tracheophyta (Lycoposida) Class: Lycopodinae Order: Lycophodiales Family: Subsigillariaceae Genus: Syringodendron Shipping & handling for this item will be: To Europe: $17 US To USA, Canada, Africa, South, Central America, Asia: $18 US To Australia &... read more

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