The Emplectopteridaceae were pteridosperms known mainly from Permian floras of the Cathaysian Realm. They were mostly shrubby plants with a scrambling or upright habit, and favoured a range of habitats from arid to moist or even aquatic. The foliage is the most abundant known remains of this family, having been reported from Artinskian to Wuchiapingian macrofloras of both north and south China. The venation is characteristically flexuous to loosely anastomosed, and rather different from the more regularly anastomosed venation of the true gigantopterids (with which the Emplctopteridaceae fronds used to be confused). The stratigraphically older leaves tended to be twice pinnate (Emplectopteris), the later leaves once pinnate or entire (Gigantonoclea). The ovules were bilateral and attached