Rhynia

Rhynia
Temporal range:
Reconstruction of Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii, redrawn after Kenrick & Crane (1997:101)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Subdivision: Rhyniophytina
Class: Rhyniopsida
Order: Rhyniales
Family: Rhyniaceae
Genus: Rhynia
Kidst. & W.H.Lang (1917)
Type species
R. gwynne-vaughanii
Kidst. & W.H.Lang (1917)
Species
  • R. gemuendensis Hirmer (1930)
  • R. gwynne-vaughanii Kidst. & W.H.Lang (1917)

Rhynia is a single-species genus of Devonian vascular plants. Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii was the sporophyte generation of a vascular, axial, free-sporing diplohaplontic embryophytic land plant of the Early Devonian that had anatomical features more advanced than those of the bryophytes. Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii was a member of a sister group to all other eutracheophytes, including modern vascular plants.