Stratum.black
Lepidodendron — Lepidodendron
Lepidodendron — Verisimilus T, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Plant

Lepidodendron

Scale tree

Lepidodendron is the Carboniferous scale tree, a lycopsid 30 m tall whose bark left diamond-shaped leaf cushions in spiral rows; bark impressions are common in coal-measure sandstones and shales of Pennsylvania, Illinois, Britain and Europe. Bark slabs are cheap and dramatic; the underground Stigmaria roots and Lepidostrobus cones are also collected. Confusion with Sigillaria is common; Sigillaria has vertical rows of cushions.

PhylumTracheophyta
ClassLycopodiopsida
OrderLepidodendrales
FamilyLepidodendraceae
GroupPlant
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorSternberg 1820· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Lycophyta › NO_CLASS_SPECIFIED › Lepidodendrales › Lepidodendraceae· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)388–206 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences313· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Lepidodendron — Lepidodendron aculeatum (NHMUK PB V 68594)
Lepidodendron aculeatum (NHMUK PB V 68594) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Lepidodendron" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/lepidodendron. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-lepidodendron,
  title        = {Lepidodendron},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/lepidodendron}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

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