''Protolepidodendropsis'' is a genus of lycopsid known from fossil forests dating from early

Late Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era during the Phanerozoic eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at million years ago ( Ma), to the beginning of the succeeding ...

strata in

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

. Fossil forests of ''Protolepidodendropsis pulchra'' have been recovered from

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

of the Plantekløfta Formation, estimated to be around 380 million years old. The plants have trunks of up to width with flanged bases up to in diameter. Their height is unknown but estimated to be around 2 to 4 m. They grew apart in wet soils.

References

Devonian plants Prehistoric lycophytes Prehistoric lycophyte genera {{devonian-plant-stub