Specimen:    Rarer fossil plant, big horsetail cone - fructification Calamostachys tuberculata Williamson

Locality:       Poland - GZW, Upper Silesia Coal Basin – Detailed data will be add to package

Stratigraphy:  Upper Carboniferous / Pennsylvanian, Bashkirian, Westphalian B , Orzeskie Beds

Age:                ca. 310 myo

Matrix size:    ca. 8,5 x 7,0 x 1,5 cm         

Description:

Calamostachys tuberculata Williamson represents the reproductive organ of  cone - shaped fructifications and peltate sporophylls growing of the Calamite tree ( mother plant - Calamites sp.  preserved on specimen). These cones have jointed axes and are composed of whorls of alternating sterile leaves and sporangia. Like cones of modern trees, the cones of the Calamite tree swelled and opened up as they matured. Calamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus Equisetum) are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of more than 30 meters (100 feet). They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous period. The trunks of Calamites had a distinctive segmented, bamboo-like appearance and vertical ribbing. The branches, leaves and cones were all borne in whorls. The leaves were needle-shaped, with up to 25 per whorl. Their trunks produced secondary xylem, meaning they were made of wood. The vascular cambium of Calamites was unifacial, producing secondary xylem towards the stem center, but not secondary phloem. The stems of modern horsetails are typically hollow or contain numerous elongated air-filled sacs. Calamites was similar in that its trunk and stems were hollow, like wooden tubes. When these trunks buckled and broke, they could fill with sediment. This is the reason pith casts of the inside of Calamites stems are so common as fossils.

Systematic:

Phylum:                  Tracheophyta

Division:                 Gymnospermatophyta

Class:                     Equisetinae

Order:                    Calamitales

Family:                   Calamariaceae

Genus:                   Calamotachys

Species:                 Calamostachys tuberculata Williamson