Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii was first described as a new species by
Robert Kidston and
William H. Lang in 1917. The species is known only from the
Rhynie chert in
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, where it grew in the vicinity of a
silica-rich
hot spring.
Rhynia was a vascular plant, and grew in association with other vascular plants such as
Asteroxylon mackei, a probable ancestor of modern
clubmosses (
Lycopsida), and with pre-vascular plants such as
Aglaophyton major, which is interpreted as
basal to true vascular plants.
Rhynia is thought to have had
deciduous lateral branches, which it used to disperse laterally over the substrate Like those of
Aglaophyton major,
Horneophyton lignieri and
Nothia aphylla the gametophytes of
Rhynia were
dioicous, bearing male and female
gametangia (
antheridia and
archegonia) on different axes. A significant finding is that the axes of the gametophytes were vascular, unlike almost all of the gametophytes of modern pteridophytes except for that of
Psilotum. ==Taxonomy==