{{Short description|Extinct genus of vascular plants}} {{Distinguish|Calamity (disambiguation){{!}}Calamities}} {{more citations needed|date=October 2020}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{Geological range/linked|Carboniferous|Early Permian}} | image = Calamites stems.JPG | image_caption = A range of ''Calamites'' specimens, illustrating the different appearance of fossils preserved under different taphonomic modes | taxon = Calamites | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = ''Calamites carinatus''<br /> ''Calamites cistii'' <br/> ''Calamites cruciatus'' <br /> ''Calamites goeppertii'' <br /> ''Calamites multiramis'' <br /> ''Calamites ramosus'' <br /> ''Calamites rectangulus'' <br /> ''Calamites sachsei'' <br /> ''Calamites schuetzeiformis'' <br /> ''Calamites schulzii'' <br /> ''Calamites sickowii'' <br /> ''Calamites suckowi''<br /> ''Calamites undulatus'' }}
'''''Calamites''''' is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus ''Equisetum'') are closely related.<ref name="Elgorriaga 2018">{{cite journal |last1=Elgorriaga |first1=A. |first2=I.H. |last2=Escapa |first3=G.W. |last3=Rothwell |first4=A.M.F. |last4=Tomescu |first5=N.R. |last5=Cúneo |year=2018 |title=Origin of Equisetum: Evolution of horsetails (Equisetales) within the major euphyllophyte clade Sphenopsida |journal=American Journal of Botany |volume=105 |pages=1286–1303 |pmid=30025163 |doi=10.1002/ajb2.1125 |issue=8|doi-access=free }}</ref> Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of {{convert|30|–|50|m|ft|sp=us}}.<ref name=Alekhin> {{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OUIPAQAAMAAJ&q=лепидодендрон+%2250%22 | title = Geografiia rastenii s osnovani botaniki (Geography of plants and basics of botany) | publisher = Gos. nauchno-pedagog. izd-vo | date = 1961 | access-date = 2020-10-05 | page = 167 | author = V. V. Alekhin }}</ref> They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period (around {{Period span/brief|Carboniferous|-1}}).
==Taxonomy== [[File:Estonian Museum of Natural History Specimen No 193525 photo (g23 g23-10 1 jpg).jpg|thumb|left|''Calamites sp.'' from the Estonian Museum of Natural History.]] A number of organ taxa have been identified as part of a united organism, which has inherited the name ''Calamites'' in popular culture. ''Calamites'' correctly refers only to casts of the stem of Carboniferous/Permian sphenophytes, and as such is a form genus of little taxonomic value. There are two forms of casts, which can give mistaken impressions of the organisms. The most common is an internal cast of the hollow (or pith-filled) void in the centre of the trunk. This can cause some confusion: firstly, a fossil was probably surrounded with 4-5 times its width in (unpreserved) vascular tissue, so the organisms were much wider than the internal casts preserved.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} Further, the fossil gets narrower as it attaches to a rhizoid, a place where one would expect there to be the highest concentration of vascular tissue (as this is where the peak transport occurs). However, because the fossil is a cast, the narrowing in fact represents a constriction of the ''cavity'', into which vascular tubes encroach as they widen.
Further organ genera belonging to sphenophytes include: * ''Arthropitys'' (stems which are preserved in a mineralised form) * ''Astromyelon'' (permineralised rhizomes, distinguished from ''Arthropitys'' by the absence of a carinal canal) * ''Annularia'' and ''Asterophylites'' (form genera of leaf-whorls which are paraphyletic). <!--Is there a form genus for the strobili?-->
== Anatomy == thumb|The foliage (Annularia) of ''Calamites'' The trunks of ''Calamites'' had a distinctive segmented, bamboo-like appearance and vertical ribbing. The branches, leaves and cones were all borne in whorls. The leaves were needle-shaped, with up to 25 per whorl.
Their trunks produced secondary xylem, meaning they were made of wood. The vascular cambium of ''Calamites'' was ''unifacial'', producing secondary xylem towards the stem center, but not secondary phloem.
The stems of modern horsetails are typically hollow or contain numerous elongated air-filled sacs. ''Calamites'' was similar in that its trunk and stems were hollow, like wooden tubes. When these trunks buckled and broke, they could fill with sediment. This is the reason pith casts of the inside of ''Calamites'' stems are so common as fossils. thumb|left|A diagram of a pith cast of ''Calamites'' <gallery mode=packed heights=170> Calamitaceae - Annularia stellata.JPG|Specimen of ''Annularia stellata'' from Italy on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano Calamites reconstrucción.png|Reconstruction of a whole Calamites tree with Annularia. </gallery>
== Reproduction == thumb|A ''Calamites'' rhizoid ''Calamites'' reproduced by means of spores, which were produced in small sacs organized into cones. They are also known to have possessed massive underground rhizomes, which allowed for the production of clones of one tree. This is the only group of trees of their period known to have a clonal habit. This type of asexual reproduction would allow them to spread quickly into new territory, and help to anchor them firmly in the unstable ground along rivers and in newly deposited delta sediments. The rhizomes of ''Calamites'' look quite similar to the stems in most cases, but have nodes that get progressively closer together as they approach the apical area (the growth tip that spreads outward through the soil).
== Different forms == [[File:Calamites sp.7 - Carbonifero.JPG|thumb|left|Replica of ''Calamites sp.'' (Carboniferous, Léon, Spain), in a laboratory of practices of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Corunna.]]
''Calamites'' come in a variety of different "form genera". One type, ''Calamites suckowi'', is distinguishable from other ''Calamites'' forms by its prominent, swollen nodes and relatively wide-spaced longitudinal ribs. Another example, ''Calamites cisti'', has much smaller nodes and the ribs are typically closer together.
In addition, the distance between successive node lines on a ''Calamites suckowi'' specimen is typically much wider than the diameter. In other forms like ''Calamites cisti'', the opposite is true or the specimen is just slightly wider than the diameter.
However, the value of these form taxa is limited. The distance between nodes, for example, is highly variable, and an intercalary meristem means that this distance varied as the organisms grew.
== Extinction and classification == The genus ''Calamites'' is placed in the family Calamitaceae in the plant class Equisetopsida (formerly known as Sphenophyta) in the fern allies division Pteridophyta. The Calamitaceae finally became extinct in the early Permian, a time which also saw the origin and diversification of the herbaceous genus ''Equisetum'', the only living sphenophyte genus.
== See also == * ''Archaeopteris''
== References == {{Reflist}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050213040538/http://www.fiu.edu/~chusb001/GiantEquisetum/HowLarge.html How large are the giant horsetails?] * “Sphenophyta: Fossil Record.” ''Fossil Record of the Sphenophyta'', [https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/plants/sphenophyta/sphenofr.html ucmp.berkeley.edu/plants/sphenophyta/sphenofr.html]. * Stewart, W. N. ''Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1983). * Davis, Paul and Kenrick, Paul. ''Fossil Plants''. Smithsonian Books (in association with the Natural History Museum of London), Washington, D.C. (2004). {{ISBN|1-58834-156-9}} *''Calamites'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20120315050635/http://www.scientific-web.com/en/Biology/Plants/Pteridophyta/Calamites.html web.archive.org/web/20120315050635/www.scientific-web.com/en/Biology/Plants/Pteridophyta/Calamites.html.]
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Category:Horsetails Category:Carboniferous plants Category:Permian plants Category:Prehistoric plant genera Category:Carboniferous first appearances Category:Cisuralian genus extinctions Category:Fossils of Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Paleozoic life of New Brunswick Category:Paleozoic life of Newfoundland and Labrador Category:Paleozoic life of Nova Scotia Category:Paleozoic life of Nunavut Category:Paleozoic life of Prince Edward Island Category:Prehistoric plants of North America