Cladoxylopsida

The cladoxylopsids are a group of plants known only as fossils that may be ancestors of ferns and horsetails.
They had a central trunk, from the top of which several lateral branches were attached. Fossils of these plants start in the middle Devonian to early Carboniferous periods, mostly just as stems.
Cladoxylopsida contains two orders. The order Hyeniales is now included in Pseudosporochnales.
Intact fossils of the Middle Devonian cladoxylopsid "Wattieza" show it was a tree, the earliest known in the fossil record as of 2007. In 2019, experts discovered more fossils of Cladoxylopsida and "Archaeopteris" in a quarry in Cairo, New York.