Horsetails List |
Deciduous List |
Horsetail Family [Equisetaceae] |
Sterile Stems: green, branched, to 50cm |
Fertile Stems: paler green, unbranched at first, spores May |
category
category
status
petals
(0)stem
stem
10-18 ribstoxicity
8th June 2018, near Horwich, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Vegetative stems grow to 50cm (80cm abs. max). Wood Horsetail is deciduous and slightly rough to the touch. |
8th June 2018, near Horwich, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
It has whorls of very thin and delicate branches which droop downwards and are themselves branched. |
8th June 2018, near Horwich, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The branches are branched, the branches coming off in opposite pairs, up to 6 or so times (best seen top right). |
23rd May 2018, Yeoman Hey Resr, Greenfield, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
This is a shorter specimen, probably not yet fully grown. It may bear a cone at the summit later. The branches droop downwards on Wood Horsetail.Your Author was on another walk in the very long hot dry 10weeks of Summer 2018 when he suddenly sank a foot in just a tiny patch of mud, coming to a stop on the ground staring a horsetail in the branches. The first Wood Horsetail he has ever knowingly seen. Rather than photograph ir in the mud, he snapped it off and photographed it held in mid-air; it is not really this tall! Just 20cm or so for this specimen. |
1st May 2011, | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
Some tall specimens, in the field too lower down. The leaves are branched, but it is just not easy to see the (very short here) branches. |
1st May 2011, | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
The (very short) branches mostly in opposite pairs are more visible here. |
1st May 2011, | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
The mature cone (over mature?). |
8th June 2018, near Horwich, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
23rd May 2018, Yeoman Hey Resr, Greenfield, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The branches are in whorls around the main stem, with each branch bearing pairs of branches up to 6 times. But that is as far as the fractal goes, the branched branches are not branched, branching is limited to just 2 iterations. |
23rd May 2018, Yeoman Hey Resr, Greenfield, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
At each join there are 5 short splayed-out pointed teeth of the leaf-sheaths. . |
23rd May 2018, Yeoman Hey Resr, Greenfield, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The branches and toothed leaf-sheaths up close. |
23rd May 2018, Yeoman Hey Resr, Greenfield, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
8th June 2018, near Horwich, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The main stem is ridged with between 10 to 18 nearly flat-topped ridges. The main stem is also in sections, at the junction of which are 10-18 triangular dark-tipped teeth with thin membranous extensions often merged together at the tops 2 or 3 teeth. The slight rough feel of the main stem is due to the prescence of many short hairs, probably made of silica, of which, horsetails use quite a lot in their construction. |
23rd May 2018, Yeoman Hey Resr, Greenfield, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The branches have between 3 to 6 ridges (fewer than the 10-18 of the main stem). The nodes on the main stem are green; concolorous with the main stem and the branches. |
1st May 2011, | Photo: © Bastiaan Brak |
The green sheath with its long green sheath teeth are very visible here, as well as the filamentous teeth between those. The filamentous teeth have a translucen edge around a darker centre, and are often fused together into pairs or threes. All Horsetails have these structures, but in differing numbers and differing dimensions. |
Not to be semantically confused with : Horse-radish (Armoracia rusticana) , Horse-Chestnut, Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) nor to Hybridizes with :
Distinguishing Feature : The only horsetail with drooping branches which are themselves branched-in-pairs up to 6-fold (only few other Horsetails have branched branches and if they do, the secondary branches are irregular and limited to 2 (not up to 6) and don't usually occur in pairs. Wood Horsetail is native and not only grows in damp woods but also on upland open moors (where your Author came face to face with one when he sank in the mud), hedgerows, beside streams and banks (but don't expect to get money out of them).
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Equisetum | sylvaticum | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Equisetaceae |
Equisetum (Horsetails) |
Horsetail Family [Equisetaceae] |