Specimen:      Beautiful extinct liana-like flower shaped horsetail - pteridophyte , rarer species: 

Sphenophyllum emarginatum BRONGNIART

Locality:         Poland, GZW Upper Silesia Coal Basin – Deatailed data will be send with speciemen

Stratigraphy:  Upper Carboniferous  – Pennsylvanian -  Westphalian B – Orzeskie Beds

Age:                 ca. 310/315 myo

Matrix dimension:  ca. 12,5 x 9,0 x 2,5 cm , white square on pictures is 1,0 x 1,0 cm 

Description: 

Beautiful extinct liana-like flower shaped horsetail - pteridophytes , rarer species: 

Sphenophyllum emarginatum BRONGNIART

Sphenophyllum is a genus of extinct plants that lived from the end of the Devonian Period to the beginning of the Triassic Period (about 360 to 251 million years ago); it is most commonly reconstructed as a shrub or a creeping vine. Sphenophyllum had a strong node-internode architecture, which has led some authorities to ally it with modern horsetails. Branches and leaves were arranged in whorls at each node much like the later Calamites; however, the leaves of Sphenophyllum were triangular in shape. Spore-bearing cones were also similar to those of Calamites and modern horsetails; however, Sphenophyllum lacked the hollow central stem that characterizes horsetail relatives because its tracheids, or water-conducting cells, were arranged in a central triangle surrounded by wood. Sphenophyllum grew in floodplain swamps, away from the margins of rivers.

Systematic:

Division:      Tracheophyta (Sphenopsida)

Class:          Equisetosidae 

Order:         Equisetales

Family:        Calamitaceae

Genus:        Sphenophyllum Brongniart 1828

Species:        Sphenophyllum emarginatum BRONGNIART