Paleobotany: ASTEROPHYLLITES sp. – Palaeozoic Horsetail

Family: Equisetaceae DC.

Distribution: The oldest horsetails (Equisetophyta) are known from the Upper Devonian and reached their greatest development in the Carboniferous (before 345–280 million years ago). Some of them resembled trees (Calamitales – one of the most common and frequently found plant fossils in the Upper Carboniferous). These arboreal forms became extinct in the Permian Period and began to develop the herbaceous forms of horsetails. A relict of these former horsetail trees is the extant herbaceous horsetail, the genus Equisetum.
Ecology: Asterophyllites is a genus of extinct horsetails (Equisetales), it grew mostly in moist habitats. It is a significant component of Palaeozoic coal (together with mosses, lycopods and ferns).
Description: Species of the genus Asterophyllites had segmented stem, some specimens could reach several metres of height. The leaves grew on thin branches in whorls, were not connected, each leaf with a single vein.


These fossils come from Czechia, Kladno (Carboniferous).