Morphology of a non-pseudosporochnalean cladoxylopsid from the Middle Devonian of Yunnan, South China

A new plant is described based on materials from the late Middle Devonian (Givetian) of Zhanyi, Yunnan Province, China. The plant has a highly dissected primary xylem column typical of Cladoxylopsida. It has a stout stem, two orders of branching, and recurved ultimate units forming more or less planate sterile branching structures laterally. The fertile unit is complex, with many stalked discoidal sporangia aggregated around the second order fertile branch. This plant shares few morphological characters with the only well known and well defined order of cladoxylopsid plants so far known from the Middle Devonian, the Pseudosporochnales. It is united with fragments of plants previously described from Panxi, Yunnan and named Panxia gabata n. gen. n. sp.