Cycadeoidales

Cycadeoidales, also known as Cycadeoidophyta or Bennettitales, was an extinct division of plants that flourished during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. These plants shared some characteristics with modern cycads but differed significantly in their reproductive structures.123

Unlike cycads, which bear a few large reproductive cones at the stem tip, cycadeoids produced many smaller cones embedded among the leaf bases. These cones contained both pollen and ovules and were sometimes surrounded by petal-like structures, leading to early speculation about a link to flowering plants, though this is now discounted.142

Cycadeoids had stout, barrel-shaped trunks covered in persistent leaf bases. While some species, like Williamsonia, had more slender, branching forms, others, such as Cycadeoidea, were squat and unbranched. These plants eventually became extinct by the end of the Cretaceous Period.24