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Sawdonia is an extinct genus of early vascular plants, known from the Upper Silurian to the Lower Carboniferous (430 to 320 million years ago). Sawdonia is best recognized by the large number of spikes (enations) covering the plant. These are vascular plants that do not have vascular systems in their enations. The first species of this genus (Sawdonia ornata) was described in 1859 by Sir J. William Dawson and, was originally attributed to the genus Psilophyton. He named this plant Psilophyton princeps. In 1971 Francis Hueber proposed a new genus for this species due to its "Divergent technical characters from the generic description for Psilophyton." The holotype used for description is Dawson Collection Number 48, pro parte, Museum Specimen Number 3243. (See Dawson 1871, Plate IX, fig 101.) Sir J.
Sawdonia had an extremely broad range, with many specimens found in Canada (Battery Point Formation), Venezuela (Campo Chico Formation), England and Scotland (Strathmore Group). There have even been a species that has been found across China, that might fall under the Sawdonia genus.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sawdonia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
