Lycophytes and horsetails from the Triassic flora of Thale (Germany)

The Thale flora, which is kept today in three different European collections (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet in Stockholm, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum “Naturalis” in Leiden and the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität in Berlin), represents one of the richest and most diverse assemblaged plant mesofossils from the German Lower Keuper. We here consider the lycophytes and sphenophytes from this flora. Annalepis cf. zeilleri Fliche, although generally distributed widely in the German Triassic, is recorded for the first time for this flora. The flora also contains Equisetites arenaceus (Jaeger) Schenk and Neocalamites merianii as well as isolated sphenophyte roots (Radicites sp.) and “cortical” stem structures known under the binomination Neocalamites asperrimus (Franke) Shen.