Walchian conifers are indicators of seasonally dry habitats of the Euramerican subtropics and tropics and are of considerable value in tracking both short term and long term Pennsylvanian-Permian paleoclimatic changes in central Pangea. Walchian conifer macrofossils first appeared in North America during the Middle Pennsylvanian, but are rare in central Pangean coal basins until the Permian. An abrupt climate change occurred near the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary that was characterized by global warming, stronger seasonality, and shorter wet phases. This change coincided with the regional extinction of most tree lycopsids and the appearance of widespread, high chroma, calcic vertisols and aridisols. Only four occurrences of Walchia have been reported from the Pennsylvanian of the Appalachian Basin: 1) 7-11 Mine of eastern Ohio, 2) Rennersville in southwest Pennsylvania, and 3) Charleston and 4) Cedar Run, both in southern West Virginia. This paper uses recently acquired outcrop data to more fully document and reevaluate the depositional and stratigraphic context of the West Virginia assemblages and their paleoclimatic and paleogeographic implications. The Cedar Run Walchia assemblage occurs in olive mudshale of an abandoned fluvial channel-fill 15.8-16.9 m above the base of the Ames Limestone, indicating an early Virgilian age. It consists of compressions and impressions of branches and branchlets of Walchia, Lepidophylloides, Cordaites, and rare neuropteroid pinnules. The channel -fill at this location is a component of the Grafton Sandstone incised valley -fill previously described from the study area. Correlation of paleosol-bounded, marine-cored cyclothems in the study area with their nonmarine cyclothem equivalents at Charleston, West Virginia indicates the Walchia previously reported at the Mahoning coal horizon, occurs between the Brush Creek and Bakerstown coals, and is therefore Missourian, not late Desmoinesian, and similar to the revised age for the 7-11 Mine Walchia reported from eastern Ohio. Late Pennsylvanian, upland (or dryland) conifer communities were comprised of Walchia, Cordaites, and Sigillaria which produced a forest with seed ferns as an understory. The Cedar Run assemblage was probably transported into the valley from adjacent, well -drained coastal plain uplands formed during valley incision, and deposited within the early transgressive systems tract. It is also possible that Walchia expanded into the valleys when drainage became ephemeral during more arid climatic phases. The revised correlations of Appalachian Basin Walchia horizons indicate their appearance closely followed, rather than predated the abrupt climate change and extinctions at the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.