Editing Lepidodendron (section)

{{short description|Extinct genus of vascular plants of the Carboniferous to Triassic}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Lepidodendron reconstrucción.jpg
| image_caption = Life reconstruction
| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Early Carboniferous|Late Permian}}
| taxon = Lepidodendron
| authority = Sternberg, 1820
| subdivision_ranks = [[Species]]
| subdivision = * ''L. aculeatum'' {{small|Sternberg 1820}}
* ''L. batovii'' {{small|Chachlov 1948}}
* ''L. obovatum'' {{small|Sternberg 1820}}
* ''L. whitehillianum''  {{small|Anderson & Anderson 1986}}
| synonyms = *''Dimicheleodendron'' B.A.Thomas & C.J.Cleal
}}

'''''Lepidodendron''''' is an [[extinct]] [[genus]] of primitive [[Lycopodiopsida|lycopodian]] vascular plants belonging the order [[Lepidodendrales]]. It is well preserved and common in the fossil record. Like other Lepidodendrales, species of ''Lepidodendron'' grew as large-tree-like plants in wetland [[coal forest]] environments. They sometimes reached heights of {{convert|50|m|-1|abbr=off}},<ref name=Alekhin/> and the trunks were often over {{cvt|1|m|ftin}} in diameter. They are often known as "scale trees", due to their bark having been covered in diamond shaped leaf-bases, from which leaves grew during earlier stages of growth. However, they are correctly defined as arborescent [[lycophytes]]. They thrived during the [[Carboniferous]] Period (358.9 to 298.9 [[million years ago]]), and persisted until the end of the [[Permian]] around 252 million years ago. Sometimes erroneously called "giant [[club mosses]]", the genus was actually more closely related to modern [[Isoetes|quillworts]] than to modern club mosses. In the [[form classification]] system used in [[paleobotany]], ''Lepidodendron'' is both used for the whole plant as well as specifically the stems and leaves.