A new late Carboniferous calamitacean sphenophyte from South Wales, United Kingdom

Abstract

A new calamitacean sphenotype is described from the middle Westphalian coal-bearing strata of South Wales; Asterophyllites tayloriorum sp. nov. (leafy shoots) and Palaeostachya wagneri sp. nov. (cone-bearing shoots). Both the leafy shoots and cones are characterised by relatively small leaves/bracts in whorls of four. Although the leafy and cone-bearing shoots occur in close association, and were almost certainly parts of the same parent plant species, the case is made for assigning them to separate fossil-taxa