[2] The genus was established in 1926 from specimens collected by R. Kräusel & H. Weyland, in Hardberg and Kirberg, Rhineland, Germany, who identified the type species Calamophyton primaevum.

[7] Like other cladoxylopsids, the tree trunk was hollow, and composed of multiple interconnected longitudinal strands of vascular woody material (xylem).

[1] Calamophyton did not have leaves, but rather small branches consisting of twig-like structures[7] that grew only at or near the trunk apex, and which were the site of photosynthesis for the plant.

[7] In March 2024, paleontologists reported the discovery of an intact fossil forest of Calamophyton trees in the Hangman Sandstone Formation at Minehead, Somerset, England.

[2][7] According to Christopher Berry, one of the scientists involved in the discovery, the preservation of the Calamophyton fossil forest, with trees still in the positions where they grew, allows a direct, and unprecedented, examination of the local ecology.