Gumuia

Gumuia is a genus of extinct vascular plants of the Early Devonian. The genus was first described in 1989 based on fossil specimens from the Posongchong Formation, Wenshan Zhuang and [Miao Autonomous Prefecture|Wenshan district], Yunnan, China.

Description and phylogeny

The sporophyte of G. zyzzata consisted of leafless stems with an apparently sympodial organization. Fertile stems had a spike-like organization, with both lateral and terminal sporangia ; successive sporangia developed on alternate sides of short stems. The genus was tentatively placed in the "zosterophylls".
A cladogram published in 2004 by Crane et al. places Gumia in a paraphyletic stem group of broadly defined "zosterophylls", basal to the lycopsids.
Hao and Xue in 2013 listed the genus as a zosterophyll.