Psilophyta

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For the genus, see Psilophyton.

The Psylophyta form a stem group to the Kingdom Plantae, comprising the land plants. The name was originally applied in 1927^{[citation needed]} to a group of fossil plants from the Upper Silurian and Devonian periods, including forms such as Psilophyton and Rhynia, which lack true roots and leaves, but have a vascular system within a branching cylindrical stem. It was then extended to include two genera of living plants with a rather similar structure, Psilotum (Whisk fern) and Tmesipteris, but these are now separately classified in an order usually called Psilotales. Most paleobotanists^{[citation needed]} now consider that the psilophytes are not a coherent taxonomic group, and classify them separately along with the ancestors of ferns and clubmosses.

[edit] See also

Psilotopsida

v • d • e Early land floræ

Related links	Evolutionary history of plants • Rhynie chert • External link directory

The first...?	Vascular plant, Cooksonia • Tree, Wattieza • Lycopods, the Drepanophycales and the Zosterophylls • Fungus fossil, Ornatifilum • Lichen, Spongiophyton

Enigmatic taxa	Cuticular remains: Cosmochlaina, Nematothallus • A giant fungus? — Prototaxites

Sister taxa	Green algae: Charophyta, from which land plants evolved • Chaetocladus, an early alga

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