''Halleophyton'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of extinct

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They ...

s of the

Early Devonian The Early Devonian is the first of three epochs comprising the Devonian period, corresponding to the Lower Devonian series. It lasted from and began with the Lochkovian Stage , which was followed by the Pragian from and then by the Emsian, ...

(Pragian, around ). Fossils were first found in the Posongchong Formation of eastern Yunnan, China. The plant had leafy aerial stems. The leaf bases completely covered the stems forming rhomboidal to hexagonal patterns, except where spore-forming organs or

sporangia A sporangium (; from Late Latin, ) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cyc ...

were present where the leaves thinned out somewhat. The tapered undivided leaves curved inwards and appear to have had a central vein. The sporangia were mixed with leaves and were more-or-less circular in outline, consisting of two valves which split to release the spores. ''Halleophyton'' has similarities with ''

Drepanophycus ''Drepanophycus'' is a genus of extinct plants of the division Lycopodiophyta of Early to Late Devonian age (around ), found in Eastern Canada and Northeast US, China, Russia, Egypt and various parts of Northern Europe and Britain. Description ...

'', but a lack of detailed knowledge of some features of that genus persuaded Li and Edwards to create a new genus for their specimens. Although considered to be related to the lycophytes, the exact placement of the genus was left open by its authors. Hao and Xue in 2013 listed the genus as a

lycopsid Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching s ...

References

Early Devonian plants Prehistoric lycophyte genera Prehistoric lycophytes {{paleo-lycophyte-stub