Pinopsid plants bearing cones with megasporophyll units comprising single (unlobed) sterile bracts, more or less free to the base, and ovuliferous scales almost invariably multilobed and multiovulate.
As for the order Ferugliocladales
Cordaitanthalean plants with ovulate strobili attached to axis between leafy bracts, and grouped loosely into spirally arranged compound polysperms; ovules reflexed on the seed-scale.
Male: Male strobili differ from female strobili, the pollen organs being borne on the margin of a palmately lobed structure, but it is unknown if they were parts of compount structures; pollen quasi-monosaccate. Foliage: Leaves hypostomatic; stomata not in regular files. Stem: Trees or shrubs, with eustelic stems often with separate pith.
Cordaitanthalean plants with simple strobili into compount polysperms; ovules borne erect, with integument partly free from nucellus. Male: Male strobili similar to female strobili; pollen quasi-monosaccate. Foliage: Leaves hypostomatic; stomata in distinct furrows between veins. Stem: Trees or shrubs, with eustelic stems.
Gymnospermous plants with megasporophylls consisting of bract/scale complexes in which the fertile scales - from compound radially symmetrical to simple bilateral symmetrical - occur free to almost fully fused in the axils of sterile bracts. Male: cones compact, unisexual, helical, smaller and morphologically more conservative than ovulate cones, with simple microsporophyll units comprising scale and 2 to several microsporangia; pollen unisulcate, dissacate to nonsaccate. Foliage: helical, scale-like to linear, with simple midvein to several parallel and forking veins.
Pinopsid plants with reproductive organs in unisexual strobili consisting of helically arranged scales, which can be sterile of bear terminal clusters of ovules or of pollen sacs; ovules platyspermic.
Male: Pollen monosaccate.
Foliage: Leaves large, strap-like, veins parallel,
Feuilles persistantes, linéaires, simples sur une longueur de 15 à 20 millimètres, puis se séparant en deux branches divergeant de 30º environ, égales, longues de 10 à 15 millimètres; celles-ci se bifurquent à leur tour sous un angle de 40º et forment deux pointes aiguës, longues de 8 à 10 millimètres. Les deux bifurcations successives s'executent dans un même plan.
Feuilles linéaires aiguës variables de longueur, une ou plusieurs fais dichotomes; cellees qui portent les graines ne le sont qu'une seule fois, de nature coriace, rigides, parcourues par des nervures fortes, saillantes, parallèle au bord de la feuille, insérées en spirale sur les rameaux et les ramules, très nombreuses, contiguës pas leurs bases. elles sont fixées sur des coussinets saillants, sub-rhomboïdaux obliques, rappelant ceux de feuilles décurrentes latéralement et plus semblables à ceux de certaines Conifères.
Dicranophyllalean plants with ovulate sporophylls arranged in cones (strobili), and with ovules borne apically on pinnate arms.
Foliage: Leaves fork once or twice; cuticle hypostomatic, with stomata in two furrows near the leaf margin.
Stem: With prominent leaf cushions.
Pinopsid plants with ovulate strobili borne axiallary to a bract of leaf; ovules platyspermic, borne on pinnate sporophylls.
Male: Pollen organs formed into loose cones; pollen monosaccate.
Foliage: Leaves elongate-linear, helically disposed, with a single longitundinal vein.
