Question

phylogenetic importance of rhynia

Answer 1

Rhynia. Rhynia is a single-species genus of Devonian vascular plants. Rhyniagwynne-vaughanii was the sporophyte generation of a vascular, axial, free-sporing diplohaplontic embryophytic land plant of the Lower Devonian that had anatomical features more advanced than those of the bryophytes.

Answer 2

Rhyniaceae is one of the five families of the single order psilophytales of the class Psilophytopsida.

Rhynia is one of the genera of this family Rhyniaceae.

PHYLOGENETIC IMPORTANCE :

Rhynia among the Psilophytopsida is the simplest vascular plant. It consists of a naked leafless shoot, bearing sporangia at the apices of the branches.

Rhynia is known as one of the earliest known land plants on earth but certainly, it cannot be regarded as the first plant because the first plant should possess imprints of an aquatic habitat.

But the structural attributes of Rhynia show opposite to what the first plant on earth is regarded as.

The structural attributes of Rhynia are:

Photosynthetic shoot;

Thick cuticle;

Well developed stele;

Presence of stomata in the stem.