Further insights into the Lower Devonian terrestrial vegetation of Sichuan Province, China

An investigation of new material and reappraisal of an existing taxon from the Lower Devonian Pingyipu Group, in Jiangyou County, Sichuan have yielded four new genera. They include unequivocal records of rhyniophytes in southern China: Jiangyounia gengi gen. et sp. nov. has a naked pseudomonopdial stem with tangentially extended, oval, terminal sporangia, while in Polycladophyton gracilis gen. et sp. nov. vertically extended, oval sporangia terminate short stems in a profusely isotomously branched distal zone. Zosterophylls are represented by Baoyinia sichuanensis gen. et sp. nov., originally described as Hicklingia sp., and Sichuania uskielloides gen. et sp. nov. In both, sporangia are arranged in lax strobili, but they are vertically extended and roughly oval in outline. These new plants were confined to the Sichuan region and add to the very high percentage of endemics in the assemblage. In this characteristic, they are similar to the far more extensive assemblages of Yunnan, although their composition is very different.