Lepidodendron is an extinct genus of primitive lycopodian vascular plants belonging the order Lepidodendrales.

Like other Lepidodendrales, species of Lepidodendron grew as large-tree-like plants in wetland coal forest environments.

They are often known as "scale trees", due to their bark having been covered in diamond shaped leaf-bases, from which leaves grew during earlier stages of growth.

At the ends of branches were oval-shaped strobili called Lepidostrobus that had a similar shape to modern cones of a spruce or fir.

As the lycopods aged, the wood produced by the unifacial cambium decreased towards the top of the plant such that terminal twigs resembled young Lepidodendron stems.

To resist the bending force of wind, Lepidodendron depended on their outer bark rather than their vascular tissues, as compared to modern trees that rely mostly on their central mass of wood.

[3] The leaves of the lycopsid were needle-like and were densely spiraled about young shoots, each possessing only a single vein.

The leaves were only present on thin and young branches, indicating that, though the lycopsid were evergreen, they did not retain their needles for as long as modern conifers.

[citation needed] The two outer scars mark the forked branches of a strand of vascular tissue that passed from the cortex of the stem into the leaf.

Above the leaf scar was a deep triangular impression known as the "ligular pit" for its similarities to the ligule of Isoetes.

[3] The underground structures of Lepidodendron and similar lycopsid species known from the fossil record including Sigillaria are assigned to the form taxon, Stigmaria.

[8] During the early stages of growth, Lepidodendron grew as single, unbranched trunk, with leaves growing out of the scale leaf bases (cushions).

[12] However, in the Cathaysia region comprising what is now China, wet tropical environmental conditions continued to prevail, with Lepidodendron (in its broad sense) only becoming extinct around the end of the Permian, around 252 million years ago, as a result of the extreme environmental disturbance caused by the Permian-Triassic extinction event.