PALAEOBOTANICAL RESEARCH GROUP UNIVERSITY MUNSTER HISTORY OF PALAEOZOIC FORESTS THE EARLIEST LAND PLANTS The earliest vascular land plants appeared about 425 million years ago in the late Early Silurian. This form, Cooksonia, consisted of small naked, dichotomously bifurcting axes bearing terminal sporangia. These plants were only a few centimeters high. Baragwanathia is a much more robust plant ...