The Pods! EarthCache

Lepidodendron is the name for an ancient arborescent lycopod, also known as the "scale tree" because of distinctive diamond-shaped leaf scars that covered it's outer bark midsection. The leaves were long and narrow, similar to large blades of grass, and were spirally-arranged. Lepidodendron formed a crown with repeatedly branched axes. Similar to other modern conifers, the ancient plant reproduced by spore-bearing cones, which were attached near the termination of the leaves.
  It was prolific during the Carboniferous Period  and capable of growing to heights of more than 100 feet with supporting trunks measuring up to 3 feet or more in diameter.
 
 Sigillaria, a closely related  cousin . It had leaves and roots very similar to  lepidodendron, but it differed in that it exhibited much rarer branching and its tall, columnar trunk lacked the scale-pattern. Instead it exhibited straight, fluted furrows along the trunk midsection. Occasionally the trunks were smooth.
  Other differences were the cones. Lepidodendron cones were attached individually near the tip of it's branches. Sigillaria cones occurred in clusters attached in certain places along the upper stem.
   
  Lycopods dominated Carboniferous swamp forests throughout the period. Most became extinct in the Permian era, although smaller forms survived through the Mesozoic. These trees produced little secondary xylem-woody tissue, growing outwards so as to increase the diameter rather than height. The trunks were filled largely with pith and strengthened by a thick cortex. Photosynthetic tissue covered the trunk giving it a green color, unlike todays trees. When mature,  they formed lateral branches and put out a leafy crown. Rising like pillars, they were able to grow in great density of up to 800 trees per acre.

Their rooting systems, called stigmaria, are usually fossilized in a collapsed state, showing they were hollow and immersed in water rather than soil. Unlike true roots, the appendages around the stigmaria radiated in every direction,  indicating that they drew from a watery substrate. Scars left by the rootlets suggest that they were shed just like the leaves, and by the same analogy that they photosynthesized. The stigmaria were not, in other words, anchored in "seat" earth, as is usually assumed.
  Modern descendants of these lycopods are tiny dwarfs by comparison-- including varieties of the  ground or club mosses, quillworts, and spikemosses.

Microscopical analyzes have shown that up to 70% of our Carboniferous coals may consist of lycophyte material.    The upright remains of these lycopods are commonly  found in the roof of mines. Fossil treestumps are known to generations of underground coal miners as "kettlebottoms" & "widowmakers" because of their size & shape and because they present a potentially mortal danger. In many cases, all that remains of the original tree is a thin coaly film that traces the circumference of the outermost bark. The interior of the tree is replaced by mudstone or sandstone, and the contact between the coalified bark and sedimentary infilling is a slickened surface. Once undercut by mining machinery, the stumps can fall at any time. Roof-bolting crews either pry down any loose kettlebottoms, or drive steel bolts through the stumps, securing them into overlying strata.

To log this cache:
Post a photo with you, gpsr & at least one of the stumps.
Measure or estimate the height, diameter & distance between the stumps .
What is the most noticible difference(closeup)  between the two?
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