These ancient spore-bearing plants once towered over Earth as massive, coal-forming forests

Gardening · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Today, lycophytes are humble, small plants found across the globe, especially in tropical regions. Yet, their ancestors were giants, dominating prehistoric landscapes and forming the vast coal deposits we rely on today. These vascular plants represent a unique evolutionary lineage that has survived for hundreds of millions of years.

Lycophytes, classified as Lycopodiopsida, are a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores rather than seeds. While modern species are small and herbaceous, the fossil record reveals a different history. During the Devonian Period, which began roughly 419.2 million years ago, and potentially as far back as the Silurian, these plants began to flourish. Extinct genera like Lepidodendron and Sigillaria were tree-like giants, sometimes exceeding 30 metres in height, and their remains are the primary source of the world's great coal beds.

The classification of these plants has evolved alongside our understanding of their biology. A 2016 consensus, established by a group of experts known as the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group, organizes all 1,200-plus living species into three distinct orders: Lycopodiales, Isoetales, and Selaginellales. These groups are distinguished by their reproductive strategies. The club mosses (Lycopodiales) are homosporous, producing one type of spore, while the quillworts (Isoetales) and spike mosses (Selaginellales) are heterosporous, producing both microspores and megaspores.

Reproduction in lycophytes is a complex process involving an alternation of generations. In many club mosses, the gametophyte stage is subterranean and can take five or more years to reach sexual maturity, often relying on a symbiotic fungus for nutrition. In contrast, the heterosporous Selaginella and Isoetes have microscopic gametophytes that develop largely within the spore wall. These plants also exhibit fascinating sperm morphology; while most lycophytes possess biflagellate sperm, Isoetes has evolved multiflagellate sperm, a trait that allows for larger genome sizes by bypassing the constraints placed on biflagellate cells.

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