| Lycopodiophyta | ||
| Plants | Miadesmiales |
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| Lycophyta Home | Drepanophycales | Protolepidodendrales | Lycopodiales | Selaginellales |
| Lepidodendrales | Miadesmiales | Pleuromeiales | Isoetales |
The Bashkirian (middle Carboniferous) Miadesmia was a quasi-seed-bearing herbaceous plant, much like the recent Selaginella, although possibly an epiphyte. This was one of two lineages of Paleozoic lycopsids that independently evolved seed-like structures, the other being the large Lepidodendrales like Lepidocarpon. The seeds of the two genera are differently in structure, and hence evolved independently.
XII. The Palaeontological Record. - II. Plants by D.H. Scott, F.R.S. - some information here on trends in seed-development in Carboniferous lycopsids; in Darwin and Modern Science by A.C. Seward, Book Rags e-book
Margaret Benson (1908), Miadesmia membranacea, a new Palaeozoic lycopod with a seed-like structure, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B 199: