genus of extinct plants (plant) that lived from the end of the Devonian Period to the beginning of the Triassic Period (about 360 to 251 million years ago); it is most commonly reconstructed as a shrub or a creeping vine. Sphenophyllum had a strong node-internode architecture, which has led some authorities to ally it with modern horsetails (horsetail). Branches and leaves were arranged in whorls at each node much like the later were triangular in shape (Calamites). spore-bearing cones (cone) were also similar to those of Calamites and modern horsetails; however, Sphenophyllum lacked the hollow central stem that characterizes horsetail relatives because its tracheids (tracheid), or water-conducting cells, were arranged in a central triangle surrounded by wood. Sphenophyllum grew in floodplain swamps, away from the margins of rivers.