Equisetum arvense

Equisetum arvense
Horsetail
Prêle des champs 

Fertile, non-photosynthetic stems are produced in the spring, with seeds ripening in April

 4- 8 whorls of brown scale leaves with an apical brown spore cone

Green sterile stems start to grow after fertile stems have wilted; persisting through summer until frost; jointed segments with whorls of side shoots at segment joints, highly branched

Latin:   equis = horse

            seta = bristle

            arvense = “from the meadow, field”

Date back 350 million years – close relative of the fern

Fertile stem, 4.08.13

Sterile stem, 5.07.13

In Situ, 4.11.13, in wetlands near Lacoste

Fall stems, Lacoste valley, 9.26.14

Fall, Lacoste valley, 9.26.14

Illustration by Carl Axel Magnus Lindman, 1920s